Polluters Will Pay $50 Million to Clean Maryland Superfund Site

Although there has long been criticism of the so-called Superfund in the USA (which tries to ensure the clean-up of historically contaminated industrial sites, including mines) it is the only legislation of its kind anywhere. And, as this recent example shows, it seems to be having some success.

Polluters Will Pay $50 Million to Clean Maryland Superfund Site

Environmental News Service (ENS)

July 8, 2005

BALTIMORE, Maryland, - The federal district court in Baltimore has approved a consent decree settling the government’s claims against 40 companies responsible for contamination of the Maryland Sand, Gravel and Stone Superfund Site in Elkton, Maryland.

The consent decree, filed on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), by the Justice Department requires the settling defendants to complete the cleanup. The EPA has been supervising a cleanup effort that began in 1984, and will take several more years to complete.

The total cleanup costs may exceed $50 million. The consent decree announced today involves the third and final phase of the cleanup, which will cost an estimated $23.5 million.

This 150 acre site is the location of a former sand and gravel quarry owned by the Maryland Sand, Gravel & Stone Co. From 1969 to 1974, the site was used for the disposal of industrial waste, including waste processing water, sludge, and hazardous waste drums.

After a chemical waste fire at the site in 1974, about 200,000 gallons of liquid waste were taken to an off-site landfill, and the remaining drums and sludge were buried in on-site excavation pits.

The hazardous waste disposal at the Maryland Sand Site resulted in high levels of several contaminants benzene, chlorobenzene, 1,4-dioxane, 1,1,1-trichloroethane and vinyl chloride – in the site’s soil and ground water.

In 1984 the site was added to EPA’s Superfund list of the nation’s most contaminated sites. Past cleanup activities at the site have cost $20.7 million.

Forty potentially responsible parties entered into a consent decree with the United States in 1988, agreeing to conduct the first phase of the EPA-approved cleanup plan which involved the removal of about 1,200 buried drums and construction of a pump and treat cleanup system for shallow contaminated ground water.

A 1992 consent decree amendment required the parties to complete the second phase of the cleanup, addressing monitoring and treatment of deeper groundwater.

The final phase of the cleanup includes excavating and treating contaminated soil, backfilling treated soil, and expanding the groundwater pump and treat system. This phase also includes adding substances, such as molasses or oxygen, to the groundwater to facilitate the breakdown of hazardous substances by microbes.

As part of the EPA approved cleanup plan, the settling defendants will address 1,4-dioxane contamination of groundwater and soil, which may cost an additional $7 million.

Under the Superfund law, landowners, waste generators and waste transporters that are responsible for the contamination of a Superfund site must either clean up the site, or reimburse the government or other parties for cleanup costs.