The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has sued a defunct company for access to a Rush Township, Pa., Superfund site to cap a dioxin-contaminated pile of plastic that threatens nearby wells.
Earlier this week a judge in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg, Pa., granted the agency 90 days to have workers cap a 60-foot-high, 3,000-foot-long and 500-foot-wide pile of dioxin-contaminated shredded plastic' at the former Eastern Diversified Metals Corp. site in Hometown, Pa.
EPA filed the suit July 27, seeking approval from landowner Theodore Sall Inc. to enter the site to install the cap.
EPA spokesman David Sternberg said the agency has earlier permission from Sall Inc. to cross the land to get to the site for other cleanup activities, but the permits are for specific activities and do not cover capping the pile.
Because Sall Inc. has been defunct for years, there is no way to contact its officials for that permission, so EPA sued.
According to the lawsuit, Sall Inc. has not paid property taxes on its 25-acre parcel since 1994.
Meanwhile, so work can move ahead, U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Andrew Smyser gave the agency and work crews the right to enter the land.
''When we implement remedies under Superfund, we respect the rights of property owners,'' Sternberg said. ''In those cases where we are unable to secure access from the property owners, we go to court.''
So far, there has been soil sampling, land surveys, test pit installation and equipment placement at the site, all covered under the earlier permits. The fluff contamination covers 7 or 8 acres, the suit says.
Capping the site would involve smoothing the pile, covering it with a liner, then applying a clay-based liner topped with 2 feet of soil. Contaminated sediment also will be removed from a 1,500-foot section of a stream.
The fluff pile was left behind when Eastern Diversified Metals, which recycled metal from insulated wiring, went out of business in 1978.
EPA announced its cleanup plan for the site in 2001.
EPA installed a similar cap at the lead-contaminated former Tonolli battery-recycling site in Nesquehoning.
Last August, Nassau Metals Corp., a Lucent Technologies subsidiary, agreed in a settlement to pay $10 million to cap and monitor the 350 million pound pile of fluff. However, permission was needed from Sall Inc. to enter the property to do the work.
Lucent, which was spun off from AT&T in 1996, is paying for most of the cleanup work because its former parent company supplied the bulk of the wire recycled at the site.
Nassau Metals admitted no liability in the settlement.
The fluff is contaminated with dioxins. The EPA says dioxin is a cancer hazard and can cause reproductive and developmental problems and immune system damage, and can interfere with hormones.
The agency said dioxins formed at the site when the pile caught fire in the 1970s.
The site also is contaminated with with zinc, lead, copper, manganese, polychlorinated naphthalenes, volatile organic compounds and PCBs, EPA says.
Eastern Diversified reclaimed copper and aluminum from wire from 1966 to 1977, sold the metal and dumped the plastic and insulation that was with it behind the factory. The Morning Call