LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies have reached a $56.6 million settlement for further cleanup of contaminated groundwater at the Dual Site Groundwater Operable Unit of the Montrose Chemical Corp. and Del Amo superfund sites, it was announced today.
The work will include operating and maintaining the primary groundwater treatment system for the remedy selected in the 1999 Dual Site cleanup plan.
The settlement with Montrose Chemical Corporation of California, Bayer CropScience Inc., TFCF America Inc., Stauffer Management Company LLC, and JCI Jones Chemicals Inc. also includes payment to the EPA of $4 million in past costs, another payment of costs incurred by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and payment of the EPA's and DTSC's future oversight costs.
“This settlement ensures the long-term operation of the groundwater cleanup system,'' said John Busterud, EPA's regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “EPA is committed to the removal of contaminants from our groundwater in Los Angeles County.''
Groundwater at the Dual Site is contaminated with hazardous substances from industrial operations, including chlorobenzene from the former Montrose facility where DDT was manufactured, benzene from the Del Amo facility where synthetic rubber was manufactured and trichloroethylene related to several facilities.
The settlement, also involving the U.S. Department of Justice, specifically addresses the chlorobenzene plume, which refers to the entire distribution of chlorobenzene in groundwater at the Dual Site and all other contaminants that are commingled with the chlorobenzene.
Cleanup activities will involve pumping the groundwater in the chlorobenzene plume and treating it to federal and California state cleanup standards identified in the 1999 remedy.