EPA concludes cleanup oversight for explosion, fire at C6-Zero's Marengo factory
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ended oversight of the cleanup of the area around a shingle recycling factory in eastern Iowa that exploded and burned in December 2022, the federal agency announced Thursday.
The EPA took responsibility for the site in Marengo in May 2023 at the request of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. State officials had asked the agency to oversee the cleanup after contractors missed deadlines to test for and remove contaminated water and soil.
According to the EPA, officials were most concerned with contamination from tetrachloroethylene (PCE), cis-1,2-dichlorothene (DCE), naphthalene, lead, and petroleum. The EPA oversaw contractors who hauled away and disposed of the contaminated soil and water.
More: Iowa factory, site of explosion, massive fire, was full of safety hazards, EPA finds
Iowa DNR spokesperson Tammie Krausman said in an email Thursday that department officials will review cleanup reports submitted to the EPA. The DNR and the Iowa Attorney General's Office will determine whether the company operating the factory at the time of the explosion, C6-Zero, will need to take more action to remediate the hazards.
The attorney general's office sued C6-Zero last year after the company failed to clean up the site by state deadlines.
Explosion comes amid investor tour
The explosion occurred as C6-Zero founder Howard Brand was giving investors a tour of the factory, a former soybean crushing operation converted to use a proprietary solvent Brand claimed could melt asphalt shingles into their component parts, including oil. The company planned to resell the oil as bunker fuel for ships.
C6-Zero paid roofers for old shingles, which employees loaded onto a conveyor belt. The belt ran the shingles through a series of trommels — rotating cylinder's full of the company's solvent.
On the day of the explosion, employees told the Des Moines Register, the shingles jammed on the belt. An employee began to try to jar the shingles loose. In the process, vapors from the solvent ignited, creating a blast that ripped a hole in the building's wall and ceiling and blew some workers and visitors into the air. Two employees caught fire, with one suffering severe injuries.
Employees later told the Register that company officials did not disclose to them what chemicals they were working with, which a C6-Zero spokesperson denied. The Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company about $100,000 for a series of violations, including failure to train employees on how to handle the chemicals.
In July 2023, the state sued C6-Zero for cleanup costs. A judge dismissed that case in May after Assistant Attorney General David Steward wrote that the company's insurers had paid the state about $1.4 million.
Employees, meanwhile, have filed three lawsuits against C6-Zero. And Steven Bathgate, a Colorado investment banker who toured the plant the day of the blast, sued the company and Heartland Crush, the owner of the site, in October.
According to Bathgate's complaint, the impact of the explosion threw him against a concrete wall, breaking nine ribs, his clavicle, his right ankle, his right leg and parts of his spine. The impact also dislocated his left hip, the suit says.
Firefighters from dozens of agencies worked for 20 hours to douse the resulting fire.
Tyler Jett is an investigative reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at tjett@registermedia.com, 515-284-8215, or on X at @LetsJett. He also accepts encrypted messages at tjett@proton.me.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: C6-Zero Marengo explosion cleanup oversight by EPA ends
