US DOJ Announces Settlement on Superfund Claim

The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York has lodged a proposed settlement with five parties who have agreed to pay $212,750 to the United States for the costs that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has incurred since April 2004 to clean up a mercury spill at the Port Refinery Superfund Site in Rye Brook, N.Y.

The parties settling with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) are Jacob Goldberg & Sons Inc., L& B Metals, L&B Metals Inc., Poor Charlie & Co. and Alexander Fariello.

According to the DOJ, the settlement partially resolves a lawsuit that the United States brought under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) to recover clean-up costs incurred by the EPA to remove mercury contamination from the site.

According to the initial complaint and agreement, the five defendants were involved in the scrap metal industry and sold scrap mercury to Port Refinery to be refined. As the complaint alleges, during the course of refining and purifying scrap mercury, Port Refinery caused mercury or waste-containing mercury to be spilled or discarded.

Since April 2004, the EPA has incurred more than $7 million in clean-up costs at the site in connection with undertaking a variety of investigative and removal activities, including testing air, waste and soil at the site for mercury contamination, excavating and disposing of more than 9,300 tons of mercury-contaminated soil from the site; installing air and water filtration systems for residences at the site; cleaning up the underground pipes; and demolishing a residence that had significant mercury contamination.