FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         ENR
TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 1996                            (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

                                 
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, EPA ANNOUNCE $11 MILLION SUPERFUND SETTLEMENT


     WASHINGTON, D.C. --  A collection of 66 companies, 3
municipalities and 2 federal agencies will pay $11 million to
clean up the Doepke-Holliday hazardous waste site in Johnson
County, Kansas, under an agreement announced today by the
Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency.  A
complete list of settling parties is attached.

     Under the agreement, the parties -- the current and former
owners and operators of a landfill and a number of companies who
sent hazardous waste materials -- will share in the cost of
cleaning up and monitoring the site, which was found to contain
many hazardous substances, including benzene and lead.  The site
is part of an 80 acre landfill, bordering the Kansas River, that
was used for residential and commercial disposal beginning in the
1950's.  

     "This settlement demonstrates the United States' commitment
to cleaning up Superfund sites in a fair and equitable fashion,"
said Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of
the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources
Division.  "The Superfund law is fair because it makes the
polluters pay to clean up their mess -- not the American
taxpayer."
     
     The operator of the landfill dumped a wide variety of wastes
on the site, including fiberglass and fiberglass resins, paint
sludge, waste solvents, petroleum refinery wastes and chemical
and pesticide manufacturing wastes.  In 1970, at the direction of
the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Johnson
County Health Department, the landfill was closed and all waste
disposal activity halted.



     EPA Region 7 Regional Administrator Dennis Grams said this
settlement brings together all the major contributors to the site
and virtually all of the smaller ones.  "It resolves difficult 
issues of how the costs of cleaning the site should be spread 
equitably among the various parties.  We appreciate the
responsible manner in which everyone dealt with EPA in
negotiating this settlement," Grams said.

     The Doepke-Holliday site is very close to where Interstate
435 crosses the Kansas River in Johnson County, Kansas.  The
principal component of the site cleanup is the installation of an
impermeable cap over the former disposal area.  The cap will
prevent contact with any of the contaminated materials in the old
disposal area and reduce infiltration of surface water through
that area, thereby minimizing runoff from the site.  Cap
maintenance and groundwater monitoring will continue at the site
indefinitely.

     The settlement, using a method recommended by the parties,
establishes classes of parties, ranging from significant
contributors paying a large percentage of cleanup costs to 33
small contributors called "de minimis" parties, and imposes
varying obligations on each class.  This tiered system of
responsibility is part of a flexible approach the government
applies to Superfund cases in an attempt to produce a fair and
equitable resolution for all parties involved.

                               ###
96-106

                       LIST OF SIGNATORIES


Waste Disposal, Inc.
Browning-Ferris Industries of Kansas City, Inc.
Deffenbaugh Industries, Inc.
A.W. Doepke, Jr., President, Waste Disposal, Inc.
City of Overland Park
Certainteed Corporation
Ford Motor Company
General Motors Corporation
Chevron U.S.A. Inc.
Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corp.
Phillips Petroleum Company
Curran Paint & Varnish Company
The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Company
Reichhold Chemicals, Inc.
Stuart Hall Company Inc.
T H Agriculture & Nutrition Company Inc.
The Marley Company
The Bayer Corporation
Fruehauf Trailer Corporation
Latshaw Enterprises, Inc.
A.B. Chance Company
Bethany Medical Center
Colgate-Palmolive Company
Deluxe Corporation
Navistar International Transportation Corp.
Olin Corporation
Providence Medical Center
Sealright Co., Inc.
Davis Paint Company
Mobil Oil Corporation
PBI-Gordon Corporation
Pratt & Lambert United, Inc.
Unified School District #500
Missouri Pacific Railroad Company
The Clorox Company
Uniroyal, Inc.
Armco Inc.
Boise Cascade Corporation
General Electric Company
Jason Empire, Inc.
Cargill, Incorporated
The Fuller Brush Company
S-G Metals Industries, Inc.
Spangler, Inc.
Sunshine Biscuits, Inc.
Union Camp Corporation
Dean Machinery Co.
Southwestern Bell Telephone Company
Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc.
A.E. West Petroleum Company, Inc.
Concrete Materials, Inc.
D.W. Newcomer's Sons, Inc.
GTE Operations Support Incorporated
Western Resources, Inc.
Monsanto Company
Chemetron Investments, Inc.
The Junior College District of Metropolitan Kansas City
The Pillsbury Company
PQ Corporation
United Telephone Company of Missouri
Warwick Paper Compnay, Inc.
Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation
Fairbanks Morse Pump Corporation
Bartlett and Company
Deluxe Corporation
Faultless Starch
The Hertz Corporation
Lee Apparel Company Inc.
City of Kansas City, Kansas
City of Leawood