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Site History

Aerial view of a former facility surrounded by expansive woodlands. The facility includes several buildings and parking areas, situated at the edge of a forested landscape with roads leading to nearby homes.The Former Monsanto/Solutia/Ascend Facility Site (the Site) is located at 1515 Highway 246 South in Greenwood, South Carolina. The Site property encompasses the former facility, and adjacent properties with a total of 615 acres. The facility was originally constructed in 1960 by Chemstrand Company, which became a Monsanto Chemical Company subsidiary in 1961. Monsanto later divested its nylon business, leading to the formation of Solutia. In 2009, SK Capital purchased Solutia’s nylon division and established Ascend Performance Materials Operations, LLC (Ascend). The facility includes two primary manufacturing areas known as the North and South Plants, which historically produced bulk continuous filament, industrial fibers, and polymer flake.  

The facility has been closed by Ascend and is no longer operating as of February 2025.  

This Site is not a Federal Superfund Site, nor are there any Federal Superfund Sites located in Greenwood County.  The responsible parties (Monsanto Chemical Company, Solutia, Inc., and Ascend Performance Materials, LLC) have been working cooperatively with S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC now SCDES) agency for decades.

The Site was invited into the State Voluntary Cleanup Program in May 2012 and entered into a Voluntary Cleanup Contract (VCC) under the ownership of Ascend Performance Materials Operations, LLC.  A Voluntary Cleanup Contract is an agreement between a Company and the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services (the Department) in which the Company agrees to work with SCDES to conduct an investigation, environmental cleanup, and/or monitor the Site until the contamination has reached acceptable levels, as determined by the Department. The VCC was executed on June 30, 2016, and required the submission of regular progress reports, a comprehensive Environmental Assessment (Remedial Investigation [RI]) and an Evaluation of Cleanup Alternatives (Feasibility Study [FS]).

An adjacent property to the east of the Site and abutting Lake Greenwood, is wooded, undeveloped land that is accessible via a network of unpaved roads. Historical use includes growing, harvesting, and regenerating timber as well as recreational activities such as hunting, shooting, fishing, and camping. There are two buildings located on this property, a training room and a recreational covered patio with a playground. This property was recently re-parceled to 683 acres and sold to GLH II LLC. A Phase I assessment was conducted and voluntarily submitted to the Department in April 2026. This report indicated that the property did not have any environmental issues of concern.  

Areas of Concern – Former Ascend Facility  

There are two primary areas of contamination at the Facility: the Construction Debris Site and the Burn Pit Area.  The primary contaminants of concern located on the Site are tetrachloroethane (PCE), trichloroethene (TCE), cis 1,2, dichloroethene (cis-1,2-DCE).

The Construction Debris Site remedy consists of a clay cover and a groundwater extraction system that was installed in 1985. Annual Remediation Effectiveness reports are submitted to the Department for review providing monitoring data from groundwater and surface water at the Site. This data helps demonstrate the effective of the groundwater extraction system.  

In 1992, environmental sampling revealed contamination in the former Burn Pit Area.  The contaminants were similar to those present at the Construction Debris Site. Two additional extraction wells were installed and connected to the existing groundwater extraction system to remediate the contamination found in the Burn Pit Area.  

The groundwater extraction system operated from 1985 until 2024, when it was requested to be suspended for a Feasibility Study evaluation. After sampling was conducted to evaluate Site conditions, the remediation system was restarted in December 2025 and is still in operation.  

Additional Site Features

A Nylon Disposal Area on the Site contains scrap and raw nylon used during the startup of the facility. An electromagnetic survey and groundwater investigations determined this area to be inert. Several excavations of the Nylon Disposal Area have taken place that confirm these findings.  

Recent Work under the Voluntary Cleanup Contract (VCC 16-4830-RP)

The Voluntary Cleanup Contract called for a Remedial Investigation at the Site.  A Remedial Investigation is a comprehensive environmental assessment to investigate the sources and nature and extent of contamination at a Site, this includes soil, surface water, sediment and groundwater. The Remedial Investigation Report for the Site was submitted in October 2020 and conditionally approved by the Department in November 2020. This approval triggered the creation of the Feasibility Study.  This document evaluates the extent of contamination from all sources present on the Site.  

Upon completion of the Remedial Investigation, the next step in the process is a Feasibility Study.  This process uses existing data collected in the Remedial Investigation to screen and evaluate potential cleanup alternatives for the Site. The Department would then choose the best remediation strategy for a site. The purpose of the Feasibility Study for this Site is to evaluate the efficiency of the current groundwater extraction system and compare it to other technologies - technologies that could enhance the existing system, be conducted in tandem, or replace it – to facilitate Site Closure.  This often requires collection of additional data to fully evaluate the potential for remedies to cleanup the Site.  The data collection process for the Feasibility Study is ongoing at present.

Key Site Documents