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EPA Recovers Cleanup Costs in Trial Judgment Against Polluters at the Sidney Landfill Superfund Site in Delaware County, New York

Release Date: 12/18/2001
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(#01146) NEW YORK, N.Y. – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has received $3.5 million in a federal court judgment against two companies responsible for hazardous waste contamination at the Sidney Landfill Superfund site in Sidney, New York. The two companies, Honeywell International Corp. (formerly Allied Signal, Inc.) and the Amphenol Corporation, are successors of the Bendix Corporation. Bendix was the largest commercial and industrial waste contributor to the landfill, which operated from 1967 until 1972. The $3.5 million is partial reimbursement to EPA for the Agency’s investigation, oversight and enforcement costs related to the site, which is on EPA’s National Priorities List (NPL) of serious hazardous waste sites. Honeywell and Amphenol are conducting cleanup work at the Sidney Landfill Superfund site under the terms of an EPA order. The construction of the landfill cap over four on-site disposal areas was completed in 1999 in accordance with New York State standards. A study to determine how to best address highly-contaminated ground water at the site began in October. "The cleanup of this site in Sidney is well on its way to completion and, thanks to the Court’s decision, EPA will recover 100% of its expenditures at the site," said EPA Regional Administrator Jane M. Kenny. "The recovered costs will be used to correct hazardous waste problems at other Superfund sites that need the funding." EPA expects to be reimbursed by Honeywell and Amphenol for an additional $1.5 million, the remainder of the Agency’s expenditures at the site, by early next year. The court judgment stems from a week-long trial held last June in Federal District Court for the Northern District of New York. Several former Bendix employees from the Sidney factory confirmed at the trial that Bendix dumped at least 2,500 gallons of waste oil weekly there in 1968 and 1969, and that the company continued doing it after the New York State Department of Health ordered Bendix to stop to protect nearby reservoirs. After the trial, in August, the court ruled that Honeywell and Amphenol are together liable for the environmental harm and the resulting investigation and cleanup of the site. Another Superfund site, the Richardson Hill Road Landfill, is located across the road from the Sidney Landfill site. Honeywell and Amphenol are also responsible for hazardous waste contamination at the Richardson Hill Road Landfill.