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EPA Takes Major Step to Fund Cleanup of Beede Superfund Site in N.H.

Release Date: 06/03/2002
Contact Information: Alice Kaufman (617) 918-1064

BOSTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that it has made a settlement offer to 1,000 companies, municipalities and individuals in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island that will give these parties an opportunity to resolve their Superfund liability for the Beede Superfund site as soon as possible, while contributing to the cost of cleaning up this heavily contaminated site.

This is EPA's second formal settlement offer at the 39-acre toxic waste site in Plaistow, NH, which was extensively contaminated from the 1920s to 1994, when the facility closed. This settlement offer represents a continued large-scale effort by EPA to provide many small-volume contributors of hazardous waste with an opportunity to avoid the often lengthy Superfund negotiations process.

The first settlement offer, made in June 2001, was received by approximately 680 parties, each of whom contributed no more than 1,000 gallons of hazardous waste to the site. That offer resulted in a formal settlement between EPA and 496 of the 680 recipient parties who in total contributed more than $1.6 million towards the investigation and cleanup of Beede. EPA has spent $17 million on cleanup efforts to date.

This second settlement offer is being sent to parties who contributed up to 5,000 gallons of hazardous waste to the site, and includes settlement not only with EPA, but also with the State of New Hampshire. The settlement offer is structured in a manner similar to the first one, and is based on updated estimated cleanup costs, which are determined to be approximately $65 million. The price per gallon applied to this second settlement offer ranges from $5.97 to $6.46 per gallon, leading to potential individual total payments that range from $1,647 to $31,250.

Parties who choose to accept this offer will be released from any further EPA or State of New Hampshire costs associated with the site, and will receive protection from potential contribution lawsuits by other liable parties. Parties receiving this second offer have until August 2, 2002 to decide whether or not to accept. Funds collected from this settlement will be added to the $1.6 million currently being held in a Beede special account, to be used for expenses associated with the necessary investigation and cleanup of the Beede site.

"EPA continues to use every creative tool possible to come up with a strategy that we believe is fair and equitable for everyone and fosters early settlements with small volume contributors," said Ira Leighton, deputy regional administrator of EPA's New England Office. "More than two thirds of the parties EPA extended the first settlement offer to chose to accept it, thus eliminating the uncertainty and expense typically associated with Superfund settlement discussions."

In total, EPA sent letters in June 2001 to 2,000 parties in three states – Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island – advising them of their potential liability under Superfund for the cleanup of Beede. In addition, about 650 of the smallest volume parties, each responsible for no more than 275 gallons of hazardous waste, received letters in June 2001, telling them that they will not be asked to contribute to costs associated with Beede.

EPA has established a dedicated hotline, email address and web site to assist potential settlors.

• Toll Free Hotline: (888) 294-6980 or (617) 737-1512 Fax: (888) 294-6981. The Hotline will be staffed Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. by informed staff to respond to all requests for technical or enforcement information.
  
• E-mail address: [email protected].
  
• World Wide Web: https://www.epa.gov/region01/superfund/sites/beede. This web site provides access to all existing publically available Beede Waste Oil Site information and records, including updated alphabetic and volumetric ranking lists of all parties who sent hazardous waste to the Beede site.
  
• Information is also available at: Plaistow Public Library, 85 Main St., Plaistow, N.H. (603) 382-6011 and the EPA Records Center, 1 Congress St., Boston Mass. (617) 918-1440.

EPA and the NH Department of Environmental Services have already performed significant cleanup work at the site. Over one million gallons of abandoned waste were removed between 1996 and 1997 and EPA continues to operate an oil recovery system which to date has removed over 65,000 gallons of waste oil from the plume beneath the ground. Significant soil and groundwater contamination continue to threaten the community and are a barrier to the productive reuse of the property. Next month, EPA will release a proposed soil and groundwater cleanup plan for public review.

Under the federal Superfund law enacted by Congress in 1980, a generator of hazardous waste is responsible for that waste from "cradle to grave." As a result, if any waste generated by a party ends up at a location that becomes a Superfund site, that party may be required to share the cost of financing or performing the cleanup of the site.