Descripción
The Foote Mineral Co. site is located on a 79-acre property in East Whiteland Township, PA. Starting in 1941, the Foote Company operated a variety of process buildings for the manufacture of lithium metal and lithium chemicals and inorganic fluxes for the metal industry. Ores and minerals were also crushed and resized there. When the plant closed in 1991, the site had two quarries, a pit used to burn solvents, a lined waste-water basin and more than 50 buildings and process areas. Three unlined settling lagoons had already been leveled and backfilled. The site is bordered by public roads, mixed commercial and agricultural properties, a former railroad right of way and an electric utility substation. Public and private wells within four miles of the site had supplied drinking water to approximately 42,300 people and the nearest private well was 800 feet away. That well and several other private wells found to be impacted by contamination are no longer used for drinking water, and a public water supply well about a mile downgradient was taken out of service. The site was added to the National Priorities List (NPL) on October 14, 1992.
