All News Releases By Date

EPA NAMES SOUTHGATE, CA FACILITY A SUPERFUND SITE

Release Date: 6/20/2001
Contact Information: Leo Kay, Press Office, 415/744-2201

   SAN FRANCISCO   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized the Cooper Drum Facility in South Gate, Calif. as a federal Superfund site late last week, making available federal funds to perform a long-term site cleanup.

     From 1941 until 1992, Cooper Drum Co. reconditioned closed-topped, steel drums containing a variety of industrial chemicals. Soil at the 4-acre facility is contaminated with a variety of compounds, including volatile organic compounds.  Groundwater beneath the site is also contaminated with volatile organic compounds, including tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE).

     "This Superfund listing will give us the formal framework and regulatory authority necessary  to clean up this site," said Keith Takata, director of the U.S. EPA's Superfund program in San Francisco.  "With the listing process complete, we can now roll up our sleeves and get to work on devising a cleanup plan."  

     The EPA will complete a report that will define the nature and extent of the contamination and evaluate cleanup alternatives called a "remedial
investigation/feasability study" before the end of the year.

     In 1987, a highly caustic liquid from the facility migrated underground onto the nearby Tweedy Elementary School.  Although the soil contamination was cleaned up, the release and additional airborne releases from nearby industrial sites contributed to the school's closure.  

     That same year, the city of South Gate closed four municipal wells due to volatile organic compound contamination.  Recent investigations have shown that the groundwater contamination beneath the Cooper Drum Site has not impacted the city's municipal wells.  Local municipal wells supply drinking water to approximately 335,000 people.

     Cooper Drum is now the 16th Superfund site in Los Angeles County and the 97th in California.  There are roughly 1,300 Superfund sites nationwide.  

     Last week's listing followed a 60-day public comment period for the proposed listing that began on January 11.   The EPA received no comments on the proposal.