All News Releases By Date

Agreements Ensure Funding for Cleanup of Southington, Conn. Superfund Site

Release Date: 10/30/2008
Contact Information: U.S. EPA: David Deegan, (617) 918-1017 U.S. DOJ: (202) 514-2007

(Boston, Mass. – Oct. 30, 2008) – The federal government, along with the state of Connecticut, has reached three related settlements with numerous responsible parties that will ensure funding for environmental clean up activities at the Solvents Recovery Service of New England Superfund (SRSNE) site in Southington, Conn.

The site is the former location of a solvent recycling and resale facility that disposed of solvent-laden sludge in lagoons or open pits for 36 years. The distillation process that the facility undertook caused heavy groundwater contamination. EPA has been conducting various clean up activities at the site and has accumulated significant costs.

As a result of today’s settlements, EPA will receive payments totaling over $6 million in reimbursement for past costs incurred by the federal government’s clean up actions. In addition, settling parties under the three decrees will pay about $200,000 to resolve federal natural resource damage claims and over $2 million to resolve natural resource damage claims of the state of Connecticut. The $2 million payment will go to the Southington Water District to reimburse the district for costs incurred finding an alternative drinking water source as a result of the contaminated groundwater. The settlements will allow clean up work to proceed without further costs being borne by taxpayers.

Under the first settlement, a group of 59 potentially responsible parties has agreed to perform the site-wide clean up, estimated to cost approximately $29 million. These parties will perform the work under the oversight of EPA and the Conn. Dept. of Environmental Protection, and will pay EPA and the State’s future oversight costs.

Under the second settlement, 213 “de minimis” parties have settled their potential liability for clean up costs at the site by making cash payments. Only those parties that sent relatively small volume of waste to the site at the time that it was an operating facility were eligible to join this settlement.

Under the third settlement, one potentially responsible party, M. Swift & Sons, Inc., will make a payment based on the company’s limited financial ability.

Under the terms of the clean up settlement, the settling parties have agreed to implement the September 30, 2005 “Record of Decision” which outlines EPA’s clean up plan for the site. The remedy includes heating, capturing, and treating waste oils and solvents in the subsurface; excavating, consolidating and capping contaminated soil and wetland soil onsite; and continuing to pump and treat contaminated groundwater. There will also be restrictions on uses of the site property and groundwater, and long term monitoring of the cap and groundwater to ensure that the clean up remains protective of human health and the environment for the future.

“This marks the beginning of a new chapter at the Solvents Recovery site,” said Robert Varney, regional administrator of EPA’s New England office. “These settlement agreements clear the way to design and implement a final clean up plan for the site, for the benefit of the community.”

“Many years of cooperation between all levels of government and concerned parties have led to today’s agreements and, as a result, this site will be cleaned up,” said Ronald J. Tenpas, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

From 1955 to 1991, SRSNE operated as a spent solvent processing and reclamation facility at the site. Millions of gallons of waste solvents and oils were handled, stored and processed at the facility. Past operating practices, such as the use of sludge lagoons and a leach field, contributed to contamination at SRSNE and surrounding properties. Poor housekeeping from a variety of practices, including the unloading and loading of tank trucks, the transfer of spent solvents to storage tanks, as well as the improper handling and storage of drums, resulted in numerous leaks and spills to the bare ground and into the underlying aquifer. The area near the site is a mixture of commercial, light industrial, residential, and some agricultural uses. The facility is located approximately 500 feet to the west of the Quinnipiac River.

The presence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in drinking water forced the closure of the Town of Southington's Production Well No. 4 in 1976, and Production Well No. 6 in 1979. Subsequent environmental investigations revealed that SRSNE was a major source of VOC contamination to the groundwater in this area.

From 1983 to 1988, EPA and the State of Connecticut took enforcement actions to compel SRSNE to clean up the facility and its operations. SRSNE failed to comply with these enforcement efforts. SRSNE shut down in 1991. In 1992, EPA removed soil contaminated with VOCs and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from a drainage ditch along the eastern side of the Operations Area. Chemicals stored on site were also removed.

From 1995 to 2005, the Potentially Responsible Parties' Group (businesses and individuals that sent waste material to SRSNE) installed and operated a groundwater and containment system for the overburden and bedrock aquifers. The combined system has extracted and treated over 85 million gallons of contaminated groundwater to date and has removed an estimated 12,500 pounds of VOCs. In addition, they have completed various investigations and studies, constructed a wetland in the flood plain of the Quinnipiac River adjacent to the site, and decontaminated, demolished and removed all the original buildings and tanks in the former operations areas of the site.

More information:

- Clean up activity at SRSNE site (www.epa.gov/region1/superfund/sites/srs)

- The proposed consent decrees, lodged in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut, are subject to a 30-day comment period and final court approval. Copies of the proposed consent decrees are available on the Justice Department Web site at www.usdoj.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html.