EPA issued an order pursuant to CERCLA Section 104(e) requiring the current owners of record and the operator (Respondents) of the Schatz Plant site, to comply with EPA's request to enter and have access to the Site so that EPA could perform a removal site evaluation (RSE) and, if warranted following the RSE, for EPA to choose and take a removal response action at the Site pursuant to CERCLA.
Previously, EPA performed a walk-through of the Site in response to a written request made to EPA by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to undertake a removal action at the Site. Thereafter, EPA requested the Respondents provide written consent to access so that EPA could perform the RSE to determine the need for response at the Site under CERCLA and, if warranted, to choose and take such response. Respondents refused to provide consent to EPA for such activities.
Based on information documented by EPA during its walk-through of the Site, and based on information provided to EPA by NYSDEC and by officials at the Town of Poughkeepsie Building Department, EPA believes that releases of hazardous substances have occurred into the environment at the Site and that hazardous substances at the Site pose further threats of release. The Site includes a 20-acre facility operated as an industrial park with numerous aging and decrepit structures. The Site had been operated from about 1915 until 1981 by a manufacturer of ball bearings which ultimately was liquid