EPA Announces $44M Calif. Superfund Settlement

The Environmental Protection Agency announced a $44.1 settlement with industrial and manufacturing companies to pay for cleaning up groundwater contamination at an El Monte, Calif., Superfund site.

The groundwater was contaminated with volatile organic chemical by years of degreasing, metal cleaning, and other activities in the 1960s and 1970s, before current laws on handling the chemicals were introduced, according to Kathleen Salyer, EPA section chief of the cleanup.

The companies, all of them small or mid-sized, also agreed to reimburse the EPA about $1.9 million for past cleanup efforts, the agency said.

The agreement was reached Friday and announced late Monday.

The cleanup calls for pumping about 2.4 gallons per day of contaminated groundwater and treating it.

Source: The Associated Press