A chemical broker blamed for decades of contamination near an Olathe neighborhood has turned up in state records tied to three other sites across Johnson and Wyandotte counties, including an active warehouse in Shawnee still listed alongside the Olathe case. Chemical Commodities Inc., described as a former chemical broker and recycler, is now the subject of a renewed cleanup push as federal regulators work to test homes and assign blame for soil, groundwater and air contamination that has lingered for decades.
Five Results, One Company
According to KSHB 41 Kansas City, a search of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment's Bureau of Environmental Remediation Identified Sites List turns up five total results for Chemical Commodities Inc. The Olathe site, where federal cleanup work has stretched on for years, is listed as active, and so is a secondary CCI warehouse in Shawnee. Two other CCI warehouses, one in De Soto and one in Kansas City, Kansas, are listed as resolved in those same records.
A fifth KDHE result traces back decades further, to a CCI truck that broke down and caught fire in Kansas City, Kansas, while hauling chemicals in the late 1980s. Per KDHE records, that fire started the investigation of all of CCI's Kansas facilities — the episode that appears to have put the company's statewide footprint on regulators' radar in the first place.
Why the Olathe Site Keeps Making Headlines
Per EPA Region 7, Chemical Commodities Inc. didn't store its chemicals properly for decades, and that failure caused soil, groundwater and air-vapor contamination issues that continue today. The company improperly handled rejected chemicals at its Olathe site, the station's report notes, leading to spills, leaks and contamination in the soil beneath the property. The EPA took over the state's investigation of the company in the 1990s and removed chemical barrels and the warehouse itself, but the underlying groundwater problem never fully went away.
Trichloroethylene, a solvent known as TCE, is still present in the groundwater under Pollinator Prairie and can migrate into the air above it, the same account states. Groundwater cleanup at the site began in 2011 with a goal of lowering chemical levels over the following 100 years, but that goal has not been reached. A recent remedy review found that TCE could be spreading into homes farther west of the original site boundary, prompting the EPA to seek access to 156 homes it says still need testing.
Accountability and Ongoing Testing
The EPA is seeking accountability from a dozen companies it says contributed to the Olathe contamination as part of a new cleanup plan, the outlet reports. Jim Macy said the Olathe Superfund remedy does not meet today's protective standard for human health and the environment, underscoring why regulators are revisiting a cleanup effort that began more than a decade ago. The agency says it is continuing to work with affected homeowners to reduce concerns about airborne contamination and may install vapor-air mitigation systems as more homes are tested.
Separately, EPA records describe an administrative action in which the agency determined that Chemical Commodities Inc. and Jerald Gershon had failed to comply with an order issued under Section 106 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency document. In a broader enforcement summary, the agency has said it identified the parties responsible for contamination at the site as part of its cleanup and reuse efforts, per the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
KSHB 41 reported it reached out to both the EPA and KDHE for clarification about the active status of the Shawnee site, one of the open questions still hanging over the broader CCI record. For now, the agency's focus remains on continuing efforts to access homes for testing near the former Olathe warehouse and working through the list of companies it holds responsible for a contamination problem that has persisted for decades.
