Settlement Reached on Groundwater Cleanup at Rhode Island Superfund Site

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reached a settlement with respect to the Davis Liquid Waste Superfund Site in Smithfield, R.I. Pursuant to the settlement, the settling defendants will implement the groundwater cleanup at the site. They also will be financially responsible for 100% of future response costs, including oversight costs.

In 1992, the Office of Attorney General on behalf of the state initiated a suit against William Davis requiring the removal of millions of tires that had been disposed at the site as far back as the 1970s.  Although the last of the tires were removed in 2000, the attorney general's office remains committed to the remediation of the environmental hazards that existed on the site as a result of decades of solid and hazardous waste storage.

The settling defendants include: Ashland Inc., the Black and Decker Corp., FKI Industries Inc., Bristol Inc., Morton Intl. LLC, Rohm and Haas Co. and Life Technologies Corp.

Under this consent decree, the settling defendants agree to perform the groundwater remedial design/remedial action at the site and will pay all future response costs including oversight costs.  

EPA will contribute up to $9.5 million of special account funds to the groundwater cleanup. The money in the special account is made up of payments made by previous settling parties, set aside specifically for use at the site.

Source: EPA