Diamond Alkali

Diamond Alkali Company was an American chemical company incorporated in 1910 in West Virginia by a group of glass industry businessmen from Pittsburgh. The company soon established a large chemical plant at Fairport Harbor, Ohio, which would operate for over sixty years. In 1947, the headquarters of the company was moved from Pittsburgh to Cleveland. In 1967, Diamond Alkali and Shamrock Oil and Gas merged to form the Diamond Shamrock Corporation. Diamond Shamrock would go on to merge with Ultramar Corporation, and the combined company, Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corporation, would in turn be acquired by Valero Energy Corporation in 2001.

Diamond Alkali was largely responsible for contamination leading to the creation of a Superfund Site in the Ironbound section of Newark, New Jersey. Between 1951 and 1969, Diamond Alkali in Newark produced approximately 700,000 gallons of the herbicide Agent Orange. The plant had a reputation for accidents and producing the lowest quality (most contaminated with by-products) herbicides. Furthermore, the firm frequently dumped "bad" batches of the herbicide into the Passaic River. The former plant property and adjoining portions of the Lower Passaic River were declared a Superfund site in 1984. In 1986, the Diamond Shamrock Corporation agreed to pay $150,000 for a canvas tarpaulin to cover 3 acres (12,000 m²) of the contaminated area. Remediation efforts at Diamond Alkali began in 2000 and ecological investigation, dredging, and other cleanup activities are still underway as of 2012.