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Companies to pay U.S. $1.1 million for cleanup of Berks Landfill

Release Date: 3/28/2002
Contact Information: David Sternberg (215) 814-5548

Contact: David sternber 215-814-5548
PHILADELPHIA - In settlement papers filed in federal court in Philadelphia, the United States has settled its Superfund cost recovery claims against 12 companies relating to the cleanup of the Berks Landfill Superfund site in Spring Township, Berks County, Pa.

The proposed consent decree filed by the U.S. Justice Department on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, commits the companies to reimburse $1.l million of EPA’s past costs at the site, about seven miles southwest of Reading.

The site consists of two closed municipal landfills, a 49-acre eastern landfill and a 19-acre western landfill. The site was contaminated with hazardous substances, including heavy metals and solvents, disposed of at the landfills from the 1950s until the mid-1980s. Landfilling operations ceased in September 1986 as a result of a consent order between the site owner and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources.

Berks Landfill became a Superfund site in October 1989, when EPA added it on the National Priorities List of hazardous waste sites.

Under the Superfund law, the landowners, waste generators and waste transporters that are responsible for the contamination of a Superfund site must either clean up the site, or reimburse the government or other parties for cleanup activities. The parties involved in this settlement allegedly generated some of the hazardous substances at the Berks Landfill, and have agreed to reimburse EPA’s past response costs. The settling parties are: Agere Systems Inc., American Color & Chemical LLC, Carpenter Technology Corp., Continental Holdings Inc., Exide Technologies Inc., Hofmann Industries Inc., Honeywell International Inc., Quadrant EPP Inc., the Glidden Company, Unisource Worldwide Inc., Sonoco Products Co., and Sonoco Fibre Drum Inc.

Some of these parties have been performing an EPA-approved cleanup plan at the site, pursuant to an EPA order. The ongoing cleanup, which will cost an estimated $6.1 million, includes landfill caps, leachate collection and treatment system, long-term monitoring of on-site and residential wells, landfill gases, and the local habitat, and restrictions on groundwater consumption and future development.

As part of the settlement, the settling parties neither admitted nor denied liability under Superfund. The proposed settlement is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval.

Additional information on the Berks Landfill Superfund Site is available at: https://www.epa.gov/reg3hwmd/super/PA/berks_lf/pad.htm