mccormick & baxter creosoting co.

1214 W WASHINGTON ST

The McCormick & Baxter Creosoting Co. site is a 29-acre former wood-preserving facility located in an industrial area near the Port of Stockton. Old Mormon Slough, which is connected to the Stockton Deepwater Channel, borders the site on the north. Except for an 8-acre portion of the site owned by Southern Pacific Railroad Company, McCormick & Baxter owns the entire property. From 1942 to 1990, McCormick & Baxter treated utility poles and railroad ties with creosote, pentachlorophenol (PCP), and compounds of arsenic, chromium and copper. Wood treating chemicals were stored in tanks, and oily waste generated by the wood-treatment processes was stored in unlined ponds and concrete tanks on the site. The site came to the attention of state agencies in 1977 when a fish kill in New Mormon Slough and the Stockton Deepwater Channel was attributed to a release of pentachlorophenol (PCP)-contaminated stormwater runoff from the McCormick & Baxter facility. In 1978, McCormick & Baxter constructed a perimeter dike to prevent stormwater runoff from the site and installed two stormwater collection ponds. The unlined oily waste ponds were closed in 1981. Sampling has shown that soils throughout the site and groundwater in the shallow aquifer beneath the site are contaminated with PCP, various constituents of creosote, dioxin (a contaminant in industrial-grade PCP) and metals. Soil contamination extends to greater than 40 feet below ground surface (bgs) in the central processing area of the site. Site investigations indicate that the shallow aquifer (0 - 200 ft bgs) is connected with the deeper aquifer, which is a drinking water source. However, no drinking water supplies are currently threatened by site-related contamination. Approximately 105,000 people live and work within 4 miles of the site. Sediment in Old Mormon Slough adjacent to the site is also contaminated, primarily with PAHs and dioxin. Site-related contaminants have been detected in fish caught in the vicinity of the site. People fish in the Stockton Channel and in Old Mormon Slough, although the McCormick & Baxter site is fenced and posted with warning signs.

• Pacific Sound Resources (Seattle, WA)
• Northwest Pipe & Casing/hall Process Company (Clackamas, OR)
• American Creosote Works, Inc. (pensacola Plant) (Pensacola, FL)
• Jennison-wright Corporation (Granite City, IL)
• Union Pacific Railroad Co. Tie-treating Plant (The Dalles, OR)

• Oeser Co. (Bellingham, WA)
• J.h. Baxter & Co. (Weed, CA)
• Idaho Pole Co. (Bozeman, MT)
• St. Regis Paper Co. (Cass Lake, MN)