DoJ and EPA Announce $78 Million Superfund Settlement to Clean Up SoCal Groundwater Contamination

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-and-epa-announce-78-million-superfund-settlement-clean-groundwater

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Department of Justice and EPA Announce $78 Million Superfund Settlement to Clean Up Groundwater Contamination at Southern California Superfund Site

The Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced that a group of 66 companies have agreed to clean up contaminated groundwater at the Omega Chemical Corporation Superfund Site in Whittier, California. The settlement requires the companies to spend an estimated $70 million to install wells and operate a groundwater treatment system. In addition, the parties will reimburse EPA $8 million and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control $70,000 toward costs incurred in those agencies’ past cleanup actions at the site.
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Design work on the new treatment system, extraction wells and piping will begin later this year and continue into 2017, with construction expected to begin in 2018. EPA will oversee the work, which will implement the cleanup remedy required by the Agency’s 2011 Record of Decision for three miles of the groundwater plume. The settling parties will also install and sample groundwater monitoring wells later this year to investigate and evaluate the remaining contaminated area at the site to determine what additional remediation is needed.

The former Omega Chemical Corporation facility operated from approximately 1976 to 1991 and was located at 12504 and 12512 Whittier Boulevard, across the street from a residential neighborhood and within one mile of several schools. It handled drums and bulk loads of industrial waste solvents and chemicals that were processed to form commercial products. Subsurface soil and groundwater have high concentrations of trichloroethylene (TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE), Freons and other contaminants. Drinking high levels of TCE and PCE for extended periods of time could cause damage to the nervous system, liver and lungs and increase risk of cancer.
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