Defendents in the Lammers Barrel Superfund site
3M Company; Akzo Nobel Coatings Inc.; Alcoa, Inc.; Arkema Inc.; Ashland, Inc.; BP Products North America Inc.; Clopay Corporation; Copeland Corporation LLC; C.P. INC.; Crown Beverage Packaging, LLC; Cummins Inc.; Egyptian Lacquer Mfg. Company, Inc.; Ford Motor Company; GATX Corporatio; General Electric Company; Georgia-Pacific LLC; Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company; Honeywell International Inc.; Illinois Tool Works Inc.; International Paper Company; I.V.C. Industrial Coatings, Inc.; Meritor, Inc.; Momentive Specialty Chemicals, Inc.; Morton International, LLC; Navistar, Inc.; OXY USA Inc.; Pharmacia LLC; PPG Industries, Inc.; Robbins & Myers, Inc.; Shell Oil Company; Sherwin-Williams Company; Thomas & Betts Corporation; United States Steel Corporation; United Technologies Corporation; Univar USA Inc.; Valspar Corporation; Whittaker Corporation; Helen Gorby.
More online: Get a breakdown of how much each company is paying to clean up the Lammers Barrel Factory site at MyDaytonDailyNews.com/local.
About 45 years after fire destroyed the Lammers Barrel Factory site in Beavercreek, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a settlement with several corporations to cover millions of dollars in past and future cleanup costs of the toxic Superfund site.
The deal, in which major companies such as 3M, General Electric, Ford, Goodyear, Shell, Navistar and U.S. Steel Corp. wouldn’t admit wrongdoing for contributing hazardous chemicals, would avoid further litigation and speed up remediation efforts, according to a consent decree lodged in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Some of the companies involved allegedly brought toxic chemicals to the site instead of disposing them in a safer manner.
After a 30-day period starting Feb. 10 in which public comment is considered, a federal judge will decide if the settlement moves forward. The companies would then have to announce a plan and timeline for the cleanup. The decree includes $3.4 million for one stage of cleanup, a reimbursement to the EPA of about $1.5 million for work already performed at the site and an agreement to pay for future response costs.
Public comment can be sent via email to pubcomment-ees.enrd@usdoj.gov or by mail to Assistant Attorney General, U.S. DOJ—ENRD, P.O. Box 7611, Washington, D.C. 20044-7611.
“Based on the information presently available to EPA, EPA believes that the work will be properly and promptly conducted,” the agency wrote in a 359-page court document about the 2.5-acre area near the northeast intersection of East Patterson and Grange Hall roads.
“It’s a great thing for everybody to get a Superfund site cleaned up and get things moving,” Beavercreek city engineer Jeff Moorman said. “Quite a few (people) turned out when they had their public meeting about what they planned to do on that site.”
The site operated as a paint manufacturing business from 1948 to 1952, then as a solvent recovery and barrel reconditioning business from 1952 to 1969. More than a half million gallons of chemicals were stored at the facility when it exploded and burned to the ground in 1969. Residents reported the fire launched barrels into the air that landed up to a half-mile from the site, a government report said.
The EPA has found that the site and a nearby aquifer have been contaminated with chlorinated volatile organic compounds and aromatic hydrocarbons. Hazardous substances were found in the soil, sediment and groundwater. The remediation plan seeks to neutralize possible cancer-causing contaminants through soil mixing and groundwater injection of the site.
Dept. of Justice spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle said that the current site owner and 16 settling performing defendants will implement institutional controls and design, and implement a remedy estimated at $3.4 million. The complaint added: “EPA anticipates selecting one or more additional remedial or other response actions at this site in the future.”
Hornbuckle said those 16 defendants also must pay future costs plus about $1.5 million total for past response costs. The non-performing defendants must pay a combined $1.9 million for their share of the past costs and estimated future costs plus another $857,303.21 for estimated costs of future remedies. The total estimate for cleanup is about $13 million, some of which has been paid under earlier agreements.
In 1985, about 14 residential wells nearby and in the Woodhaven subdivision were found to be contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals. The Ohio National Guard was called in to provide water to residents until their homes could be connected to the county water supply.
“A lot of people were coming out saying they had family members who were ill,” Moorman said. “They associated it with the quality of water coming from that site.”
In 2002, the EPA placed the site on its National Priorities List for Superfund cleanup, and entered a deal with 21 of the companies involved in Friday’s settlement to fund further investigation of the soil and groundwater. In 2008, another 20 defendants were added. An investigation resulted in a cleanup plan, or remedy, for the site issued by the EPA in September 2011.
Court documents do not list attorney information for the defendants.
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