State inspectors visit Jeannette Glass site

Inspectors with the state Department of Environmental Protection were at the site of the former Jeannette Glass factory this morning to search for alleged violations of environmental laws, including elevated levels of arsenic, lead and asbestos.

Jeannette Glass, once one of the leading glassmakers in the country, closed in 1982 after 112 years of operation. It is owned by New York City developer Abraham Zion.

Under a search warrant issued by District Justice Joseph DeMarchis, the inspectors are seeking to inspect soil, storage tanks and asbestos containing materials in and on the grounds and buildings at the site at Bullitt Avenue and South Sixth Street.

They are also seeking to photograph and sample “the condition of waste containment,” glass cullet piles and buried cullet, according to an application for a search warrant filed by Gerald H. Tripoli, a solid waste specialist with the DEP.

“There will be an inspection of the transformers on the property to determine the levels of PCB-containing fluids remaining,” Tripoli wrote.

PCB production was banned by Congress in 1979 due to its toxicity and persistence as an organic pollutant.

Tripoli’s application chronicles a history of attempts to enforce environmental laws at the site since October 1983. Last June, a state inspector at the site observed piles of tires, 55-gallon drums with unknown contents and numerous piles of glass cullet piles, which “have a strong likelihood of leaching lead into the groundwater,” Tripoli wrote.