posted 04-10-2008 08:33 PM            

And here is a picture of the actual plant

posted 04-10-2008 09:48 PM            

quote:

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WILDBERG BROTHERS (BOLIDEN METECH)
Site History
The Wildberg Brothers Site, (aka Boliden Metech) is an abandoned metal reclamation plant which operated at this location between 1907 and 1986. The site is approximately 5 1/2 acres in size. The Site was reportedly used as an antimony smelting plant which operated for an unknown duration beginning in 1875. The Site was purchased in 1907 by the Wildberg Brothers Company who operated a metal reclamation facility. The operations included milling, sampling, assaying of scrap materials, electrolytic deposition of silver, cyanide stripping of gold, and copper concentration. Gold, platinum, palladium, silver and copper were recovered as finished products. Wildberg Brothers sold the facility to Refinement International (RMI) in 1980. RMI primarily used the facility for precious metal scrap processing and refining. Stripping operations created a cyanide waste stream which was treated and discharged under permit to the sanitary sewer system. RMI sold the facility to Boliden Metech in 1983. Boliden used the facility primarily for precious metal scrap processing, but did not engage in refining operations at the Site. Operations conducted onsite consisted of material sorting, sampling, and assaying before the materials were containerized for shipment to Boliden facilities overseas for processing. Boliden processed approximately 5,000 pounds of spent cyanide stripping solution for gold recovery. The solution was pumped into a holding tank and zinc or aluminum was added to precipitate approximtely 95% of the gold. The remaining solution was evaporated, mixed with silica, fired, and the remaining silicate solids were shipped overseas for further processing. Boliden discontinued all operations at the site in May 1986. All buildings on the site, with the exception of Building 1, the Office Building, Building 2, the Laboratory; and Buildings 11-12, the Melt Shop, and Mechanical Processing area, were demolished at that time. In 1980 overflow from the lagoon was observed spilling onto adjacent property owned by the Healy Tibbitts Construction Company. Sediment and groundwater samples taken by Healy-Tibbitts at that time showed no soil or groundwater contamination had occurred. The lagoon/pond area was dredged and filled by Refinement International in 1981, under a dredging permit from the U.S. Corps of Engineers. In 1982 California Environmental Technology and Kaldveer Associates Inc. investigated soil contamination in the lagoon area. Based on the EPA report of the Healy Tibbits site, and the confirmation samples taken by DHS on the Wildberg Brothers Site, DHS certified that all known areas of contamination on the site had been remediated in November 1987. The certification covered only those areas that DHS was able to sample, and did not include the areas which had been built over. In 1988 Boliden demolished the remaining buildings on the Site. The San Francisco Bay, Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) required an investigation of possible groundwater contamination on the site. Kaldveer Associates then installed three monitoring wells on the Site, and reported concentrations of 8 parts per billion and 15 parts per billion of trichloroethene (TCE) in two of the wells.

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