FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ENR TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 1995 (202) 514-2008 TDD (202) 514-1888 JUSTICE, EPA ANNOUNCE $40 MILLION SUPERFUND SETTLEMENT WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Some of the nation's best-known companies, including DuPont, General Motors and Chrysler, will contribute to the $40 million cost of cleaning up a toxic waste site in Delaware, under an agreement announced today by the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency. Thirty-one businesses will share in the cost of decontaminating the site, which was found to contain a virtual who's who of hazardous substances including benzene, arsenic and other carcinogens. The site is a 27-acre landfill, bordering the Delaware River, that was operated by the Delaware Sand and Gravel Company from 1959 to 1976. Emergency action to protect the area near Wilmington and New Castle was first taken in 1973. In 1984, EPA removed more than 1600 contaminated drums that were believed to pose an immediate environmental hazard. Decontamination of the groundwater was begun several years ago under a separate settlement reached in connection with the nearby Army Creek Superfund Site. Today's agreement is part of a consent decree lodged in the United States District Court in Wilmington, Delaware. Under its terms, the parties will clean up the site at an estimated cost of $33.5 million. In addition, they will reimburse the Superfund and the State of Delaware for the costs of past responses of $4.3 million and $196,000, respectively. The defendants agreed to pay future response costs, estimated at $1.2 million, and pay all costs of Department of Justice enforcement since April 1988. A complete list of the settling defendants is attached. The defendants involved in this case were sued for sending or hauling materials to be dumped at the site. "Today's settlement is a double dose of good news to the people of Delaware and all taxpayers," said Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General for the Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. "A terribly contaminated site will be cleaned up -- and the clean-up will be paid for by the companies that used it." Under the agreement, the settling defendants will remove several thousand contaminated drums that remain at the site and will clean the damaged soil by a process called soil vapor extraction. This treatment technology will draw air through the soil, stripping it of highly volatile contaminants and capturing them with a filter. The process will also improve the biodegradation of contaminants by the soil's own bacteria. # # # 95-219