FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         ENR
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1996                          (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

        UNITED STATES AND STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA ANNOUNCE
                $109 MILLION SUPERFUND SETTLEMENT

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- 56 parties today agreed to a settlement
estimated at up to $109 million to clean up the Fike/Artel
Superfund Site in Nitro, West Virginia, in a consent decree
lodged today by the United States government and the State of
West Virginia.
     A complete list of the settling parties is attached.
     Under the terms of the settlement, which was filed today in
the United States District Court in Charleston, West Virginia,
the United States and the State of West Virginia will recover
over $20 Million Dollars in clean-up costs incurred by the EPA
and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection in
responding to emergency and remedial Site actions and the
settling parties will perform future required clean-up at the
Site up to an estimated $59 million dollars.  Other Site clean-up
work presently in progress valued at approximately $30 million is
part of this agreement.

      Michael McCabe, EPA Region III Administrator, called the
Consent Decree, "A major milestone in the nation's toxic and
hazardous waste clean-up program known as Superfund."  He added,
"I wish to thank both government and private parties involved in
the Consent Decree for their hard work and innovative ideas,
without which we would not have achieved this land-mark
settlement."

     "Today's settlement will allow the citizens of West Virginia
to breathe a little easier knowing that this site is being
cleaned up," said Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General in 

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charge of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural 
Resources Division.  "This case is yet another example of how
well Superfund works in getting badly contaminated sites like
Fike/Artel cleaned up."   

     In an innovative provision, the Decree includes a commitment
by the settling parties to perform all future work anticipated at
the Site -- permanent clean-up of contaminated soil and
groundwater, and permanent closure of the abandoned wastewater
treatment plant at the Site -- provided the estimated clean-up
costs do not exceed $59 million and the future Site clean-up
levels are geared to industrial use.  The Settling Parties agreed
to perform this future clean-up, even though EPA has not yet
selected the precise measures to be utilized.

          Another important aspect of the settlement is that it
was achieved through use of mediation and other alternate dispute
resolution (ADR) procedures.  The Department of Justice and EPA
support the use of ADR in complex cases.  The parties used
mediation successfully to overcome potentially difficult issues
in this case. 

     "Alternative dispute resolution played a major role in
allowing us to obtain this settlement," said Schiffer.  "It has
provided us with a quicker and cheaper way to resolve legal
disputes, resulting in greater efficiency." 

     The Fike/Artel company operated as a specialty chemical
manufacturing facility.  The 12 acre Site was placed on the EPA
National Priorities List in 1983.  The company abandoned the Site
in 1988.  The EPA Emergency Removal Program, in conjunction with
the WV-DEP, immediately responded to the environmental threats
posed by the abandoned Site by treating on-site or removing and
sending off-site for treatment and disposal contaminants
contained in thousands of drums and containers as well as several
large on-site lagoons.

          The Decree has been lodged for public comment with the
United States District Court for the Southern District of West
Virginia and is available for examination at the United States
Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources
Division, Consent Decree Library, 1120 G Street, N.W., 4th Floor,
Washington, D.C., 20005, (202) 624-0892.

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