Thirty-six companies charged with hazardous contamination of soil and groundwater at the Breslube-Penn Superfund Site in Coraopolis, Pa., have agreed to clean up the former waste-oil transfer station, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Justice announced last week.
The companies agreed to fund and/or complete a $12 million cleanup at the seven-acre site, according to the settlement filed in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Pennsylvania. The United States sued several potentially responsible parties in 1997, including facility owners and operators, waste generators and waste transporters that were involved with industrial activities at the site.
According to EPAs web site, Wiseman Oil constructed a fuel oil recycling facility on the site in 1978. The facility manufactured lubricating oil by recycling waste oil. Due to financial difficulties, the agency said, the facility ceased operation in 1983 and Breslube Penn Inc., acquired the property from Wiseman Oil Inc.
EPA said that Breslube Penn used the site as a fuel-oil processing facility from 1983 to 1986 and constructed a lubricating oil refining plant. For some time after 1986, the site was used as a waste-oil transfer station. During operations, a waste clay filtering agent was generated. The waste generated during this process was covered with clean fill and stockpiled on-site. The facility was used as a used oil transfer station from 1987 until its closure in 1992.
The settling companies include nine – AK Steel, Alcoa Inc., CBS Corp., Eliot Co., Exxon Mobil Corp., Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., Hussey Copper Ltd. and United States Steel – that have agreed to conduct the EPA-approved cleanup. Under the settlement, the nine companies will remove oil and other pollutants and then install a cap and slurry wall containment system to prevent release of any additional contaminants. Those companies will also remediate the groundwater outside the containment area. The other 27 defendants have agreed to help fund the cleanup.
The settling companies agreed to reimburse EPA $3 million in past costs at the site, and to pay for EPAs future costs. The U.S. government has collected more than $4.2 million in prior settlements with other parties, bringing the total value of judicial settlements involving the site to more than $19 million. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which has also signed the consent decree, will be reimbursed $41,000 for its past enforcement costs and will also recover future response costs. The consent decree is subject to a 30-day public notice and comment period, and final court approval.
According to EPA and the Commonwealth, industrial activities at the site contaminated soil and groundwater with volatile organic compounds, semi-volatile organic compounds, PCBs, metals, and cyanide.
PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are a group of toxic chemicals that were widely used in carbonless copy paper and as coolants, insulators and lubricants. PCBs are of concern because they concentrate in the food chain resulting in health hazards to people, fish and wildlife. Congress banned the manufacture of PCBs in 1976 and PCBs still in use are strictly regulated.