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SAN FERNANDO PARTIES TO PAY U.S. EPA $11.8 MILLION IN PAST COSTS

Release Date: 3/19/1998
Contact Information: Lois Grunwald, U.S. EPA, (415) 744-1588

NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS

     (San Francisco) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) today announced that it is has entered into an agreement with Lockheed Corp., the city of Burbank, and a small group of other parties to pay $11.8 million to EPA for past cleanup costs at the San Fernando Valley Superfund Site. The agreement also requires Lockheed, Burbank, and the other parties to continue to pump and treat groundwater at the site's Burbank facility for 18 years, the time it's expected to take to complete the first stage of groundwater cleanup. Cost of the groundwater cleanup was reduced by $40 million when the parties to the agreement decided to reuse the water rather than to reinject it back into the aquifer and to reduce the rate water is pumped out of the aquifer. Since the San Fernando Valley Superfund Site was placed on the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) in 1986, U.S. EPA has reached agreements with more than 80 companies to participate in the cleanup of the contamination. The site extends from North Hollywood to
Glendale/Pollock. Millions of gallons of the Valley's groundwater became contaminated through the improper disposal of solvents used in metal finishing and other manufacturing processes. A treatment facility is also operational in North Hollywood and another treatment facility is under construction in Glendale. The agreement -- known as a consent decree -- was lodged March 17, 1998 in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.