EPA Reaches Agreement on Cleanup

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached an agreement with 10 companies and the U.S. Navy for reimbursement of clean up costs at a federal Superfund site in San Jose, Calif.

A total of $4.2 million will be paid to the EPA for past and future clean up costs at the Lorentz Barrel and Drum Superfund site. The site was used as a barrel and drum recycling facility from 1947 through 1987.

In late 1987 and 1988, 26,000 abandoned drums and 3,000 tons of highly contaminated soil was removed from the site; part of the property was fenced and covered to temporarily stabilize the contamination.

Soil at the site is contaminated with volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds, pesticides, herbicides, PCBs and inorganic compounds such as heavy metals. Groundwater at the site is also contaminated with volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds.

Lorentz Barrel and Drum sits directly atop an aquifer that is a major source of drinking water for the San Francisco Bay area, and three public water supply well fields are located within a mile of the site.

Besides the Navy, the parties participating in this settlement are Aervoe Industries, Inc.; D.A. Stuart Company; Ford Motor Company; General Mills, Inc.; Golden Gate Petroleum Company; K-M Industries Holding Company, Inc.; Pennzoil-Quaker State Company; Salz Leathers, Inc.; Sunsweet Growers Inc.; and Textron.

The EPA has previously settled with over two hundred other parties who sent waste to the site.