Aqua-Tech Environmental Inc. (Groce Laboratories)

Overview

The Aqua-Tech Environmental Inc. (Groce Laboratories) site covers 61.5 acres in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. It operated as a hazardous waste treatment and storage facility built over a former municipal landfill. EPA added it to the National Priorities List in December 1994, and it remains listed today.

Thirteen contaminants of concern have been identified in soil and groundwater. Groundwater contains seven chemicals, including benzene, trichloroethene, tetrachloroethene, vinyl chloride, and related chlorinated solvents. Soil contains six contaminants: Aroclor 1242 (a polychlorinated biphenyl mixture), iron, lead, mercury, thallium, and trichloroethene. Health risks come from potential ingestion or skin contact with contamination in groundwater, surface water, and soil, including risks to children.

When regulators ordered the facility closed in 1991, inspectors found 7,000 drums and lab packs, 97 above-ground tanks, 1,200 gas cylinders, unexploded ordnance, and small amounts of radioactive and biohazard material, many of them leaking. The responsible parties removed and stabilized those materials by 1994. They then capped contaminated soil with multiple protective layers, installed a soil vapor extraction system to treat soil in place, and used chemical injections to address groundwater. Construction of the full remedial action ran from September 2008 to September 2011. The responsible party group continues to fund cleanup, monitoring, and oversight.

As of EPA's second Five-Year Review in September 2020, the remedy protects human health and the environment. Human exposure is under control, groundwater migration is stabilized, and contamination has not moved off-site. Groundwater monitoring continues until cleanup goals are met. The site is fenced and secured, and nearby residents have access to public water. Institutional controls prohibit residential development, churches, day care facilities, and similar uses because the site sits within the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport Environs Area. EPA completed its most recent Five-Year Review in September 2025.

Community members can stay involved through public notices, public meetings, and interviews that EPA holds to share cleanup updates and gather input. Site records are available at the Middle Tyger Branch Library in Lyman, South Carolina. For questions, two EPA contacts are available: the Community Involvement Coordinator and the Remedial Project Manager.