SECTION ONE
Introduction
SITE DESCRIPTION
The Slippery Chemical Superfund (SCS) Site is located in Slick County, Texas, in the city of
Grease. The site was a chemical manufacturing facility that operated from 1951 to 1982. During
its operation, the Slippery Chemical Company produced chemical intermediates used in dye,
cosmetic, textile, pharmaceutical, pesticide and herbicide manufacturing. The total area of the
site is 9.6 acres and includes the previous location of the Slippery Chemical Company and the
adjacent Oily Chemical Company property. Figure 1 shows the general layout of the site.
The Slippery Chemical plant included several major buildings, two lined wastewater treatment
lagoons, a dry unlined sludge lagoon, and an unlined leachate lagoon. The lagoons were
constructed during the late 1950s, probably for use as waste impoundments. The leachate lagoon
was constructed in the lowest portion of the site, and is assumed to be the collection point for all
surface runoff at the site. Approximately 60 process tanks and reactors were located inside and
surrounding the process buildings. Approximately 10 additional larger tanks were staged outside
of the buildings for bulk storage of acids, bases, and fuel oils.
The area surrounding the site includes the Oily Chemical Company to the west, Rough Paper
Company to the southwest, Wet Creek to the south, the west branch of the Roaring River to the
north, and an apartment complex and shopping center to the east.
GEOLOGY AND STRATIGRAPHY
The general lithology of the upper 15 feet of overburden material at the SCS Site consists of
sandy clay floodplain deposits with various lenses of clay dispersed throughout. Below
approximately 15 feet, the alluvial sediments increase in grain size with increasing depth to sand
and gravel and then to sand with gravel and cobble-sized sandstone fragments. The bedrock is a
soft gray to shaley claystone and medium hard limestone ranging from less than 1 foot to 31 feet
in thickness, and occurs at approximately 110 feet bgs.
Groundwater at the SCS Site flows to the north, east and south. Local groundwater flows to the
south and southeast toward Wet Creek. Groundwater is typically encountered at 12 to 15 feet
bgs.
RELEVANT OPERATIONS AND WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
From the late 1950s through the early 1980s, four waste management lagoons (waste
impoundments) were operated at the SCS Site. The two wastewater lagoons were lined, but the
sludge lagoon and leachate lagoon were unlined. Additionally, drums of chemical waste,
chemical sludge, and demolition debris were disposed on the ground surface and in the shallow
subsurface at the site.
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Slippery Chemical OU 3 Final RA Report