Crime & Safety

DEP Sampling Continues at National Plastics

Initial reports from DEP say water and air quality levels okay.

Additional water and soil samples will be taken today to determine if water runoff from the at is contaminated.

According to Kevin Sunday, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, initial samples taken last week were “not at a concernable level."

Sunday said the runoff settled in a ditch near the McFadden Road plant and did not reach streams in the nearby area. DEP officials will visit the site again today to take additional samples to see if chemicals have settled into the soil, Sunday said. If so, remediation could be necessary, he added.

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Investigators will also try and determine the cause of the fire that started just before 11am Friday in the Palmer Industrial Park. Initial reports stated that the fire was in a Dumpster outside the business. The large cloud of black smoke could be seen as far as Lopatcong Township in Warren County to the east and Whitehall to the west.

It took more than 25 units from all over the Lehigh Valley, more than 400,000 gallons of water and eight hours before the fire was deemed “put out” by Palmer Township Fire Commissioner Delmar Grube.

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National Plastics is a recycling business that stores plastic and cardboard materials both inside and outside the building. When fire officials arrived, they discovered outside materia on fire.


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