CITIZENS PREPARE TO SUE ARMY OVER FORT ORD CLEANUP

Citizens at the Army's Fort Ord installation in California are reportedly gearing up to sue the Army in federal court, targeting what the citizens say is a "window of opportunity" in the cleanup operations to seek an injunction to halt allegedly non-compliant cleanup activity at an on-site landfill. Sources confirm that a citizens group, known as the Fort Ord Toxics Project, held a series of meetings in late December with community members and representatives from the Sierra Club to raise...

DOD, EPA OFFICIALS FOCUS ON HAMMERING OUT POLICY FOR EARLY TRANSFERS

EPA and DOD officials have been meeting frequently over the past month to hammer out a policy that will address early transfers of contaminated military property. The policy will implement a legislative change to Superfund law passed by Congress in September that allows the Defense Department to transfer its property prior to cleanup, as long as certain regulatory requirements are met. "We've just begun the process" with EPA, a Pentagon source says. But, "We're not singing in sync quite yet,"...

DOE ANNOUNCES $1.1 BILLION PRIVATIZATION CONTRACT AT INEL

The Department of Energy last month announced one of the largest privatization efforts it has undertaken to date with the award of a $1.18 billion contract to British Nuclear Fuels Laboratory (BNFL), Inc. to clean up both radioactive and hazardous waste at its Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL). The move is similar to a privatization contract awarded for DOE's Hanford facility in Washington for tank waste last year. A source with DOE, however, pointed out that action being taken at...

CITIZENS CHARGE ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM SLOWING CLEANUP AT SAN ANTONIO SITE

A citizen's group in San Antonio, TX, is citing environmental racism as the primary reason for "slow progress" in the cleanup of a controversial state Superfund site. But Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) officials deny the charges and say they are working as quickly as they can to clean up the site. At issue is the pending cleanup of the former Aztec Ceramic Corp. facility, a former ceramic tile manufacturer located on San Antonio's predominantly black and hispanic east...

EPA ESTIMATES PESTICIDE CLEANUP COSTS IN MISSISSIPPI COULD EXCEED $50 MILLION

EPA officials are scrambling to find a way to fund an emergency removal of pesticide contamination in Jackson County, MS as well as other areas in the state that could cost the agency more than $59 million. One agency source says officials are weighing different options for funding the project -- since the agency's Superfund spending for fiscal year 1997 has already been set -- including seeking the funds as part of a supplemental appropriation. Pesticide cleanup is excluded from...

Text: Laws Memo on Times Beach

December 24, 1996 MEMORANDUM SUBJECT: Decisions on the Omnbudsman's Final Report on the Review of the Times Beach Site FROM: Elliott P. Laws, Assistant Administrator To: Dennis Grams - Regional Administrator, Region VII Steve Luftig - Director, Office of Emergency and Remedial Response Bob Martin - Director, Office of the Ombudsman Attached are my recommendations to Region VII and directions to the Office of Emergency and Remedial Response in relation to the Final report on the Review of the Times...

EPA OMBUDSMAN FINAL REPORT ADVISES NEW STACK TEST FOR INCINERATOR

A long-awaited final report crafted by EPA's Office of the Ombudsman calls for new stack testing for the controversial Times Beach incinerator in Missouri. But the report, despite repeated requests by citizens and a lawmaker, does not call for the shutdown of the incinerator. The report, issued by the agency Dec. 23, was, for the most part, endorsed by EPA Superfund chief Elliott Laws, who in a Dec. 24 memo confirms that EPA will adopt the report's recommendation to conduct...

EPA PROPOSES 50 PERCENT ORPHAN SHARE AT CONTAMINATED REFINERY SITE

EPA and Justice Department officials are proposing a past cost settlement at the Port Refinery site in New York that would include forgiving 50 percent of the agency's past cleanup costs for the site by providing to the responsible parties a government-sponsored share of the costs, sources representing several of the parties say. The settlement deal would also include cashing out about thirty de minimis parties for nominal amounts, these sources say. EPA officials estimate total cleanup costs at the...

APPEALS BOARD DENIES PRP REQUEST FOR EXPEDITED COST RECOVERY ACTION

EPA's Environmental Appeals Board has rejected a PRP's request to expedite review on a $1.4 million cost-reimbursement claim. Instead, the PRP, Tiger Shipyard, Inc., will have to wait until the board decides when it will review the cost-recovery petition. The ruling has disappointed Tiger officials because they say they are losing interest on their cleanup funds while the board delays their petition for review. Tiger officials are further disappointed by the delay because EPA Region VI officials have demanded an...

ALABAMA COURT REVERSES EARLIER RULING ON 'SUDDEN' IN POLLUTION EXCLUSION

The Alabama Supreme Court in an unusual move has reversed an earlier ruling issued by the same the court last year, finding last month that the "sudden and accidental" clause in the pollution exclusion is ambiguous. The 7 to 1 decision favoring policyholders brings the tally of state supreme courts ruling on this issue to 11 to 12 in favor of insurers, according to attorneys familiar with the ruling. At presstime, sources said the insurers had asked the court for...

FEDERAL COURT FINDS EPA LIABLE FOR PATENT INFRINGEMENT

A federal district court in Colorado has ruled that EPA may be held liable for patent infringement for illegally ordering a contractor to retrofit a cleanup technology licensed to another contractor at the Summitville Superfund site in Colorado. The contractor has offered to settle with EPA for $15 million. Reversing an earlier recommendation by a federal magistrate, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado ruled in late October that the licensee, Chemical Separation Technology (CST), may sue EPA,...

SEDIMENT CRITERIA MAY EXPAND SUPERFUND LIABILITY FOR DISCHARGERS

Industry officials are raising serious concerns that if EPA broadens the scope of final sediment quality criteria (SQC), the agency will significantly expand their cleanup liability under the Superfund statute. While the Office of Water (OW) intends to finalize a first round of SQC in early 1997, according to high ranking OW officials, environmental groups are pushing the agency to expand the list of SQC pollutants in light of the agency's slow progress to date. SQC determines safe levels of...

EPA RELEASES SUPERFUND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS ANNUAL REPORT

EPA has released a comprehensive report analyzing the implementation of the agency's major Superfund administrative reforms during 1996, touting reforms that have "produced basic, permanent changes" to the program. The Superfund Administrative Reforms Annual Report Fiscal Year 1996 includes a detailed analysis of the agency's efforts to improve cleanup, enforcement, public involvement, and brownfields activities in the Superfund program. "While EPA has been working with Congress to make legislative changes, it also has fundamentally changed the program by implementing a...

Text: ASTSWMO Letter on Executive Order

December 23, 1996 Mr. Bradley M. Campbell Associate Director Council on Environmental Quality Old Executive Office Building Washington, D.C. 20501 Dear Mr. Campbell: Pursuant to the Federal Register notice of November 25, 1996 (61FR 59886), we understand that you are specifically soliciting comment on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to be developed among federal agencies to ensure coordination of executive order 13016. On behalf of the Association of States and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (ASTSWMO) CERCLA Subcommittee, we offer...

STATES QUESTION NEED FOR MOU TO IMPLEMENT SECTION 106 EXECUTIVE ORDER

The Association of State and Territorial Waste Management Officials (ASTSWMO), a leading organization representing state cleanup officials, sent White House officials a strongly-worded letter late last month that questioned whether there was a need for a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between EPA and other federal agencies in order to implement the controversial Superfund executive order signed by President Clinton last year. "As we understand this executive order, it would apply only at sites where the [EPA] Administrator is not the...

TWENTY PERCENT OF COLLECTED NRD FUNDS USED FOR CLEANUP WORK, GAO SAYS

A new report by the General Accounting Office (GAO) finds that only 20 percent of the funds collected by federal trustees as of July1, 1996 under settlements for natural resource damages (NRD) have been spent or made available for actual cleanup work. Of the 62 sites examined by the congressional investigator, only two percent had completed restoration, while restoration planning had not yet begun at 58 percent of the sites. GAO released the report Dec. 23. It is fair to...

WHITE HOUSE SET TO CONVENE FIRST-TIME STAKEHOLDER TALKS ON NRD REFORM

White House officials have tentatively convened a public stakeholder meeting to begin broad discussions that may lead to ways to reform the natural resource damage (NRD) provisions of the Superfund law. One Senate Republican source welcomed the move and called it a "positive event." If the meeting -- slated for Jan. 27 -- goes ahead as currently planned, it will be the first time that NRD reform will be discussed in a public forum since the Clinton administration took office...

Text: May Draft EPA Voluntary Cleanup Guidance

* That the Memorandum of Agreement between Region and State must be signed by Regional Administrator (for FMIA) * Any signed MOA concerning voluntary cleanup programs shall be included as part of the annual consultations between EPA and the States that is required by the NCP, Subpart F -- State Involvement in Hazardous Substance Response. * Guidance will include standard disclaimer language: This document gives guidance to EPA staff on how to draft MOAs with States on State voluntary cleanup...

DRAFT VOLUNTARY CLEANUP GUIDANCE LIMITED EPA ACTION TO 'EXCEPTIONAL' CASES

A closely-held May 1996 draft version of EPA's controversial voluntary cleanup guidance agreed to by a key workgroup of state and federal officials showed that EPA was prepared to provide strong assurances to participants in EPA-approved state voluntary cleanup programs that the agency did not intend to take any future enforcement action at the site unless "exceptional" circumstances arose. EPA officials have said that the draft document will in part form the basis for a revised draft that will appear...

Superfund Report - 01/08/1997

Wed, 1997-01-08 00:00

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