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EPA Lodges Consent Decree for National Oil Services Site in CT

Release Date: 09/18/2001
Contact Information: Alice Kaufman, EPA Press Office (617-918-1064)

BOSTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week lodged a consent decree in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, CT which will resolve the liability of approximately 400 businesses, municipalities and government agencies who sent waste oil to National Oil Services Inc. in West Haven, CT.

EPA spent approximately $1.6 million cleaning up the site. The settlement will reimburse EPA for approximately $800,000 of its costs. Most of the settling parties are from Connecticut, with some from Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island. National Oil Services Inc. was a waste oil storage, treatment, transfer, recycling and disposal facility in operation from 1982 to 1997.

A number of companies that EPA would have sought to recoup costs from are either insolvent, defunct or cannot be located. As a result, EPA will pick up the $275,000 share of the cleanup costs that would have otherwise been attributed to these parties.

This settlement will be subject to a 30-day public comment period. Each settling party will pay 8.5 cents per gallon for each gallon of waste oil it sent to the site. Based on hazardous waste manifests documenting shipments made, approximately 93 percent of the parties are being asked to pay no more than $3,000. The agency will protect settling parties from other lawsuits seeking to recover government costs.

An estimated 1,300 additional parties contributed less than 1,000 gallons each to the site, which represents approximately three percent of the waste oil received at the site. EPA will not seek to recover costs from these small contributing parties. The agency will, however, actively protect these parties from other party lawsuits seeking to recover government costs.

"EPA has reached a settlement here that is both equitable and protective," said Robert Varney, regional administrator of EPA's New England Office. "By absorbing the cleanup costs of the smallest contributors and now-defunct companies, the amount EPA is asking each party to contribute is significantly less. Additionally, the agency will protect settling parties from liability for EPA's past cleanup costs."

The National Oil Services site is located at 16-20 Elm Street in West Haven, CT and is situated on the west shore of the West River, adjoining New Haven Harbor and Long Island Sound. In 1997, after a number of years of attempting to bring the company into compliance, the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection ordered operations to cease. The property owner evicted National Oil Services and its subsidiary business, Atlantic Environmental Laboratory. Prior to vacating, National Oil Services filed for bankruptcy.

A 1997 investigation determined that the site posed a threat to human health and the environment and therefore warranted an EPA short-term cleanup action. Hazardous substances found at the site included: methylene chloride and other halogenated solvents in waste oils; sulfuric acid; hydrochloric acid; nitric acid; chromic acid; and sodium hydroxide and ether. To date, EPA has spent about $1.6 million at the site. Cleanup actions included the disposal off-site of:

• 104,000 gallons of contaminated waste oil;
• 140,000 gallons of contaminated wastewater;
• 485 tons of contaminated sludge;
• 45 drums of contaminated oil and process chemicals;
• at least 200 small-volume laboratory chemicals; and
• 30 cubic yards of contaminated debris.