c & r battery co., inc.

1320 BELLWOOD RD

The 11-acre C & R Battery Company site is in a rural and industrial area of Virginia. The James River is 650 feet north of this site. Between the early 1970s and 1985, the company dismantled batteries from cars, trucks and commercial applications in order to recover lead and lead oxide. The process involved cutting open batteries and draining acid into on-site ponds. This practice resulted in lead contamination of soil, drainage-ditch sediments, and surface water. In 1982, the company detected high levels of lead in soils, in an on-site monitoring well, and drainage ditches leading to the James River. Approximately 300 people live within a mile of this site. An estimated 1,200 people, living within three miles of the site, draw drinking water from private wells that tap the same aquifer. The nearest residential well is about 1,250 feet from the site.