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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Justice Department and the U.S. EPA today proposed a cleanup agreement with five companies that allegedly contributed to the hazardous waste contamination at the Elizabethtown Landfill Superfund Site in West Donegal Township, Pennsylvania.

The proposed consent decree, filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, resolves the government's Superfund claims against Waste Management Disposal Services of Pennsylvania Inc., AMP Inc., Furnival Machinery Co., New Standard Corp., and Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories. The agreement requires these companies to complete an EPA-approved cleanup plan at the 15-acre former landfill at an estimated cost of $26 million. The decree also requires the companies to reimburse EPA for more than $100,000 of the costs that EPA has incurred at the site.

"This settlement is a good deal for the parties and the environment," said EPA Regional Administrator W. Michael McCabe. "The agreement lets the parties involved avoid the delay and expense of litigation and focus on cleaning up this site."

The Elizabethtown Superfund site is a former sandstone quarry that later became a landfill, accepting industrial, municipal, and household wastes from approximately 1960 until 1973, when the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ordered its closure. In 1985, EPA tested the soil and groundwater around the site, as well as water and sediment from nearby Conoy Creek, and found elevated levels of chlorobenzene, benzene, toluene, phenol, lead and 1,1-dichlorethane. The EPA put the site on the National Priorities List of Superfund Sites in March of 1989.

EPA and the Justice Department worked together to develop a package of substantial incentives for the site owner and four industrial firms that sent waste to the site to get them to clean up the property and settle their liability to the United States. First, EPA agreed to pay for $1.1 million of the capital costs of the cleanup. Second, EPA agreed to forgive an additional $1.1 million in costs that EPA had incurred at the site. Third, EPA gave the five companies $780,000 in proceeds from earlier settlements with smaller waste contributors to pay for the work to be performed. These incentives were offered by the government because many other companies contributed waste to the landfill, but these companies are no longer in business or cannot be identified.

"Today's agreement will help protect the health of West Donegal Township residents," said Lois Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division at the Justice Department. "It also demonstrates that the EPA and the Justice Department are working to obtain settlements that are fair to the companies responsible for cleaning up contamination."

EPA approved a cleanup plan in October 1997, with the concurrence of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The plan calls for building a landfill cap on the southern portion of the landfill, maintaining the existing landfill cover in the northern portion. The parties will be required to implement a "pump and treat" cleanup of contaminated groundwater, using air stripping and carbon absorption, if the landfill cap and other measures do not meet the groundwater cleanup goals.

Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories is based in St. David's, Penn.; AMP Inc. is based in Harrisburg, Penn.; New Standard Corp. is based in Mount Joy, Penn.; Furnival Machinery Co. is based in Hatfield, Penn.; and Waste Management Disposal Services of Pennsylvania is based in Morrisville, Penn.

The filing of the consent decree today begins a 30-day public comment period on the agreement. The DOJ case number is 90-11-2-1097A.

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