FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ENR
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1996 (202) 616-2765
TDD (202) 514-1888
EPA (202) 260-1384
U.S. ENTERS INTO CASMALIA ACCORD
WORTH MORE THAN $30 MILLION
LOS ANGELES -- Under an agreement reached with the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice, 49
public and private entities will spend at least $30 million to
begin the clean up of millions of gallons of liquid hazardous
waste and millions of cubic yards of solid hazardous waste at the
Casmalia Resources Hazardous waste disposal facility near Santa
Maria, California.
The agreement, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles,
California, requires the 49 entities, known as the Casmalia
Steering Committee (CSC), to take over efforts to stabilize the
254 acre site while EPA evaluates its environmental
characteristics and potential risks. In this first phase of
clean-up the companies will collect, treat and dispose of
contaminated liquids and design and construct a cap for the
remaining site landfills. The work is projected to cost $30
million and will take five years to complete. The second phase
of work will be the selection and construction of a long-term
remedy to be selected by EPA.
"This settlement reflects our commitment to ensure that
responsible parties pay for the environmental damage they cause,
while also demonstrating the Agency's efforts to work with these
parties to promote enforcement fairness and reduce unnecessary
transaction costs," said Steve Herman, EPA's Assistant
Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. "This
decree assures that pollution from the site will be stabilized in
the short term, and that the remedial actions needed to cleanup
the site for the long term will be taken."
"This settlement is a good start in holding those
responsible for the contamination at Casmalia accountable for
their actions," said Lois Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General in
charge of the Environment and Natural Resources Division. "But
we also intend to ensure that those responsible parties who have
not yet joined this settlement pay their share of the clean-up
costs as well."
"This settlement represents another significant
accomplishment in the federal government's ongoing efforts to
assure that those parties responsible for creating or
contributing to hazardous waste sites accept the responsibility
for the necessary cleanup," said Nora M. Manella, United States
Attorney for the Central District of California.
While this first phase of work is being performed, the
government and the steering committee will contact the other
responsible parties that sent waste to the site and attempt to bring
them into the settlement voluntarily. Cash settlements
from these parties will be used to fund the later phase of site
work as well as the site's long-term operation and maintenance.
The long-term clean-up will also be funded in part by a $10
million trust fund set up by site owner Kenneth Hunter, Jr. to
pay for closure of the facility. The estimated cost of all site
work is estimated to be in excess of $100 million. If there is
not enough money from the cash settlements and trust fund to pay
for the later phases of site work, the U.S. could obtain the
shortfall from the CSC.
The Casmalia Resources Hazardous Waste Facility is an
inactive hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facility
which accepted large volumes of commercial and industrial wastes
from 1973 to 1989. During its years of operation, millions of
gallons of liquid hazardous waste and millions of cubic yards of
solid hazardous waste were placed in landfills and surface
impoundments at the facility. Since 1992, the U.S. EPA has
worked to stabilize the site to control actual or potential
releases of hazardous substances from the facility.
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