[CPEO-BIF] Arizona Superfund settlement requires Brownfields assessments

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

U.S. EPA
Press Release
April 12, 2006

Companies to pay over $8 million, clean up Phoenix-area Superfund site

Settlement includes Brownfields redevelopment project

(San Francisco, Calif. - April 12, 2006) The U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice have reached a 
settlement requiring parties potentially responsible for soil and 
groundwater contamination at the Phoenix-Goodyear Airport North 
Superfund Site to pay over $8 million and clean up the site.

Under the settlement, Unidynamics/Phoenix, Inc. and its parent company, 
Crane Co., are required to continue current cleanup at the site, conduct 
supplemental site investigation and future cleanup, pay $6.7 million in 
past costs and all future oversight costs, and pay $500,000 in penalties.

The settlement also requires the companies to spend $1 million on an 
environmental project that includes the inventorying and assessment of 
up to 25 possible Brownfields sites in the city of Goodyear, complete 
four more extensive site assessments, and conduct cleanups at three of 
those sites. Goodyear is the community most impacted by the site 
contamination.

"We are ensuring prompt cleanup of the site's soil and groundwater 
contamination that continues to threaten valuable drinking water 
resources," said Wayne Nastri, the EPA's regional administrator for the 
Pacific Southwest region. "We are conserving the Superfund by ensuring 
that those who contributed to the contamination pay for the cleanup. We 
are also pleased that part of the settlement will go toward assessing 
and potentially redeveloping abandoned properties in Goodyear."

"Holding companies responsible for clean-up of sites they contaminate is 
a positive step to ensure our air and water is clean in Arizona," stated 
Paul K. Charlton, U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona.

The penalties are a result of the companies' failure to comply with two 
EPA orders, issued in 1990 and 2003, requiring site cleanup. The 
companies continued some cleanup activities required in the orders, but 
violated the orders when they failed to conduct certain portions of the 
cleanup -- forcing the EPA to expend funds and conduct the work in their 
place. In July 2004, the U.S. filed a complaint on behalf of the EPA 
against Crane Co. and Unidynamics/Phoenix Inc. seeking penalties for 
violating EPA orders, past costs, and an injunction to compel the 
companies to fully conduct the site cleanup into the future.

The settlement, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the District of 
Arizona, will be made available for a 30-day public comment period.

PGA-North is part of the larger Phoenix-Goodyear Airport Area Superfund 
site. The site was listed on the federal Superfund list in 1983 after 
the Arizona Department of Health Services discovered hazardous 
substances -- including trichloroethylene, also known as TCE, and other 
VOCs -- in local water supply wells. The site is comprised of a northern 
and southern area -- Unidynamics/Phoenix, Inc. and Crane Co. are the 
potentially responsible parties for the northern portion only. In the 
late 1990s, perchlorate, a common component of rocket fuel, was found in 
area wells, and was added as a contaminant of concern for the PGA-North 
Site.

From 1963 through 1994, the Unidynamics/Phoenix, Inc. facility, located 
near the Phoenix-Goodyear Airport, manufactured defense and aerospace 
component systems, including pyrotechnics and explosives, causing 
hazardous substance releases. Following investigation in the late 1980s, 
the EPA in 1989 selected the remedy to clean up soil and ground water 
contamination. Cleanup has been underway at the site for over a decade, 
and the EPA is now working to confirm the full extent of contamination 
and adapt the cleanup to address it.


For the original press release, go to
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/114861542ba7b9178525714e0072baa7?OpenDocument

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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