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| Brownfields Weekly |
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March 7, 2002 THIS WEEK:
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Montana, Nebraska Sites Proposed for Superfund WASHINGTON, D.C. - The EPA has proposed two new sites for inclusion on the National Priorities List (NPL), in Libby, Montana, and Omaha, Nebraska. The Libby Asbestos site includes an inactive, 70 acre vermiculite mine located on Vermiculite Mountain in northwestern Montana, and portions of the town of Libby. Processing of the vermiculite ore released fine asbestos fibers, which have been found in processing plants, residential yards, and school yards in the town of Libby and between the mine and the town. In January, Montana Governor Judy Martz requested that Libby be added to the NPL, using Montana's one-time privilege of naming a site as its highest priority for designation to the NPL. EPA is conducting ongoing emergency removal actions to address asbestos contamination in yards, schools, and other processing areas in town. The Omaha Lead site in Nebraska is being proposed to the NPL because of the presence of lead contamination in soil at residential properties, child care facilities and schools throughout the area. From the early 1870s until 1996, Asarco conducted lead refining and smelting operations on the site. During its operational period, lead and other heavy metals were emitted into the atmosphere through smoke stacks, eventually settling into the soil. Approximately 65,615 residents of Omaha are located within the identified area of soil contamination. An ongoing removal action included excavation of lead-contaminated soils from 131 area properties. No further remedial action at these properties is anticipated. Funding for this year's work is already approved and does not hinge on the final listing. Final priority list status must be determined, however, before the EPA can use the Superfund Trust fund to pay for long term cleanup. The announcement begins a 60 day period during which citizens may comment on the proposed listing. For complete details on the
proposed NPL additions, please visit:
NJ's White Bridge Road Property Deleted from the NPL LONG HILL TOWNSHIP, New Jersey - The cleanup work has been completed at the White Bridge Road property of the Asbestos Dump Superfund site in Long Hill Township, New Jersey, removing the threat to human health and the environment, according to the EPA. As a result, the Agency has deleted the property from the National Priorities List (NPL) of hazardous waste sites. "Our work at the White Bridge Road site addressed the contamination, protected public health and brought improvements to Long Hill Township," said EPA Regional Administrator Jane M. Kenny. "Now that construction is completed at other portions of the site, I look forward to removing those areas from the Superfund list." The Asbestos Dump site consists of four different properties -- the 11-acre Millington site, at which a succession of owners operated an asbestos product manufacturing plant and three separate satellite sites. One of the satellite properties is the White Bridge Road site, which covers 12 acres and is bounded by the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge and private residences. This property was a farm until 1969, when the owner started receiving asbestos waste from the Millington facility and using it as fill. Disposal of asbestos waste continued at the White Bridge Road property until 1975. EPA conducted a number of Superfund actions in 1990 to immobilize asbestos contamination at the New Vernon Road and White Bridge Road satellite sites in response to a Health Advisory issued by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. These actions included: erecting signs and fences, sampling air and soil, capping two driveways, covering visible ACM with geotextile fabric, removing a dilapidated shed, and removing ACM from the ground. In January 2002, EPA announced an agreement with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to preserve this land by transferring most of the New Vernon Road property to the FWS for expansion of the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.
Register Now for "Brownfields Revitalization 2002" Presented by Rivkin Radler, LLP, this breakfast seminar will provide the real estate professional, property developer, small business owner and corporation with the tools to turn contaminated properties into productive assets. Speakers from Rivkin Radler, Sustainable Long Island, AIG Environmental, Frenkel Environmental Risk Services and Breitstone & Co. Ltd. will guide attendees on the new era of redevelopment spurred on by the Small Business Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act. Speakers will address the changes to statutory defenses, policies designed to reduce risk, contractual risk transfers, case studies and the identification of sites using GIS technologies. For more information and to
register for this seminar, contact:
Jury Finds Monsanto Liable for PCB Pollution ANNISTON, Alabama (ENS) - Chemical giant Monsanto is responsible for polluting the town of Anniston, Alabama, with tons of toxic PCBs, a jury has ruled. The ruling is a major victory for residents of the contaminated town, who have sued the company over damage to their property, to their health, and to their emotional well being. The damages phase of the lawsuit could mean millions of dollars in awards against Monsanto. After five hours of deliberations over the course of two days, the jury decided to hold Monsanto and the company that now represents its chemical division liable on six counts: negligence, nuisance, suppression of the truth, trespass, wantonness and outrage. In Alabama, the claim of outrage - a count almost never claimed or won - requires that the plaintiffs prove conduct "so outrageous in character and extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency so as to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in civilized society." John Hunter, chair and CEO of Solutia Inc., the company that Monsanto spun off in 1997 to handle its chemical division, said today in a prepared statement that Solutia is "extremely disappointed with the jury's verdict." "We understand that Anniston residents have concerns about PCBs in their community," Hunter said. "As we've said from the beginning, regardless of the result in this case, we're committed to doing what's fair to deal properly with the impacts of previous PCB production at our plant." The ruling is the latest stage in the seven year old case, which was launched after the citizens of Anniston learned that Monsanto had dumped PCBs - polychlorinated biphenyls - into the town's creeks, and buried the chemicals in a nearby landfill, for four decades. Monsanto manufactured PCBs as electrical insulators for 40 years, halting production in 1971 just eight years before the federal government banned the chemical's manufacture and use. During that period, the company disposed of tens of thousands of pounds of PCBs by flushing them into waterways or burying them in and around Anniston. PCBs are listed as suspected human carcinogens by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and are known to cause cancer in laboratory animals. In humans, exposure to PCBs can cause development problems, neurological defects, skin ailments and other diseases. In 1996, one of Monsanto's PCB dumps in Anniston sprung a leak, and residents of the small town began learning for the first time the extent of the contamination in their communities. But Monsanto knew about the problem decades earlier. Internal memos obtained by the plaintiff's lawyers and presented at the trial showed that Monsanto knew as early as the mid-1960s that PCB contamination could pose a risk to Anniston's residents, and that it was already harming wildlife in polluted streams. In 1970, Monsanto employee W.B. Papageorge sent a memo to employees regarding what to say about the dangers of PCBs. "It was emphasized that that we must continue to emphasize to all remaining users of PCB's the importance of preventing escape to the environment," Papageorge wrote, "and we must ensure that these warnings are fully documented so that they will support the action we have taken in this area should we become involved in legal actions." The company did not install pollution controls at its Anniston facilities until 1970. Some of the 3,500 plaintiffs in the case have PCB levels in their blood of 27 times the national average. Monsanto and Solutia Inc. have already spent more than $85 million to test and clean up Anniston's water and soil, and to settle other lawsuits in nearby communities. "We've made solid progress to date in investigating and cleaning up PCBs in the Anniston area," said Solutia chair Hunter. "For example, more than 8,000 acres of land have been investigated to determine what needs to be done, and more than 5,000 samples of soil, water, sediment and fish have been collected. About 300 acres of land and more than a mile of drainage ditches have been cleaned." The companies will now likely face millions or billions of dollars in damages claims from the 15,000 people now suing Monsanto - and thousands more are likely to join future lawsuits.
US and Mexico Work Together on Border Town Brownfield Naco, Arizona is directly across the border from Naco, Sonora-Mexico, and the two cities have worked together on regional issues over the years and are recognized as a model for cross-border cooperation. Together, the cities teamed up again to address the problem of brownfields. With a population of just 748, Naco is a rural, unincorporated town in Cochise County, Arizona. From the 1930s until the 1980s, the area was a major agribusiness route for the processing and shipping of cattle between Mexico and the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture required that all cattle coming into the United States be treated with pesticides, such as DDT, chlordane, and heptachlor. The site contains former cattle dip vats contaminated with pesticides, as well as a large number of dead animals, trash, and other buried waste. As the city of Naco, Sonora-Mexico grew, its waste treatment plant did not. The plant became overburdened and unable to handle the high volume of raw sewage and industrial waste water. Frequent breakdowns resulted in overflows of the system, which poured sewage over the border and onto the U.S. crossing site. Since the border crossing closed in the late 1980s, these spills have become the main source of pollution in Naco, Arizona. Selected for a Brownfields Pilot in 1999, Naco targeted 260 acres directly across the border from Naco, Sonora-Mexico. Through cooperation from the communities, cities, counties, and emergency response teams on both sides of the border, Naco, Sonora received funding to build a new treatment plant, which has since been complted. Eliminating the threat of flooding opens up the U.S. border-crossing brownfields site to positive redevelopment opportunities. Initial redevelopment plans include retail shops and restaurants incorporated in at least one shopping center, and light industrial facilities.
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