FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ENR
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1996 (202) 616-2771
TDD (202) 514-1888
U.S. REACHES SETTLEMENT IN BRIDGEPORT
RENTAL AND OIL SERVICES SUPERFUND CASE
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- More than 90 companies, federal and
state agencies have agreed to contribute at least $221.5 million
to help cover the cost of cleaning up a Superfund site in Logan
Township, New Jersey, under an agreement with the U.S. Department
of Justice (DOJ), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and
the state of New Jersey.
The settlement, one of the largest ever under the federal
Superfund clean up law, will cover approximately 70% of the cost
of completed and anticipated cleanup actions at the Bridgeport
Rental and Oil Services (BROS) site. Under the settlement, the
private companies will complete the remaining remedial work --
cleanup of the groundwater and wetlands affected by contamination
from the site.
The BROS site has long been considered one of the most
technically challenging sites to be addressed by EPA under the
Superfund program. It had been used as a waste oil collection
facility and chemical waste storage site for almost three
decades. When it closed in the late 1970s, millions of gallons
of waste oil and dangerous pollutants were left at the
site, much of it in a thirteen-acre lagoon that had become a
"toxic soup" of waste material.
Spills and leaks from the facility had also contaminated
groundwater and adjacent wetlands.
The negotiations leading to this settlement, assisted by
professional mediators, involved representatives of DOJ, EPA, the
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), the
New Jersey Attorney General's office and the settling parties.
The agreement includes a unique "risk-sharing" provision that
addresses unforeseen cleanup needs in the future.
"The risk-sharing and related features of the BROS consent
decree respond to concerns subsequently addressed in a policy
announced by Administrator Carol Browner last June," said Steve
Herman, EPA's Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and
Compliance Assurance. "Under that policy EPA will, in
appropriate cases, share in cleanup costs when some of the
responsible private parties are defunct or financially insolvent.
This reflects the government's common sense efforts to substitute
action for litigation."
"Today's settlement assures the cleanup of one of the
messiest Superfund sites in the United States," said Lois J.
Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice
Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. "This
complex settlement is the result of effective mediation led by an
experienced third-party neutral, along with a sizable financial
conribution by the federal government."
Under the terms of the agreement, the responsible parties
will immediately pay $115.5 million to EPA and NJDEP as
reimbursement for past government cleanup costs. This sum
includes monies to be paid by the United States on behalf of the
U.S. Departments of Defense and Transportation, each of which
allegedly sent waste to the site.
Jeanne M. Fox, Regional Administrator of EPA Region 2, said,
"The provate parties identified as having sent waste to the BROS
site will contribute over $46 million under this settlement.
The substantial federal contribution to the agreement
demonstrates the government's willingness to shoulder its
responsibility."
The private companies will complete a study of the
groundwater and wetlands contamination. EPA will select the
remedy to address those areas, and the private companies will
then carry out the work with partial reimbursement from the
settling federal agencies. EPA and NJDEP will share groundwater
cleanup costs with the settling parties if those costs exceed an
amount set by a formula in the agreement. If the groundwater
work costs less than that amount, most of the balance will be
paid to EPA and NJDEP in further reimbursement of the
governments' past costs.
The private companies also will be required to design and
implement the selected wetlands remedy. With funding from the
settling federal agencies, the private parties will perform that
work until they have spent $10 million, plus interest. Costs
beyond that amount will be borne by EPA and NJDEP. If the actual
cost of the wetlands work is less than that amount, the balance
will be paid to EPA and NJDEP.
"This is a good example of how alternative dispute
resolution can bring positive results," said New Jersey Attorney
General Peter Verniero. "I want to acknowledge the hard work of
the lawyers from the Department of Justice, EPA and my
department's Division of Law, who helped to craft a settlement
that will benefit the citizens of New Jersey and the
environment."
Cleanup of the site has been carried out by EPA working with
NJDEP, and is now nearly complete. Bob Shinn, Commissioner of
the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, said,
"This is an excellent example of how New Jersey's cleanup program
is working well with the federal Superfund program to remediate
sites and recoup costs."
From 1992 to 1996, more than 172,000 tons of hazardous waste
from the former toxic lagoon were safely incinerated. The lagoon
cleanup also included the treatment of more than 190 million
gallons of contaminated water and the off-site disposal of 10,000
tons of contaminated debris.
Other actions included the dismantling of a waste oil
recycling facility and tank farm including 100 abandoned tanks
containing a total of 400,000 gallons of waste. EPA and NJDEP
also installed individual carbon filtration units for more than
30 families whose private wells had been contaminated by the
site, and later constructed an alternate drinking water supply
system for the public.
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