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Four Minor Parties Agree to Help Reimburse EPA for Cleanup at C&R Battery Site in Richmond

Release Date: 2/9/1999
Contact Information: Ruth Podems, (215) 814-5540

RICHMOND - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached settlements with four companies agreeing to pay a total of $10,341 towards reimbursement for prior cleanup of  hazardous waste contamination at the C&R Battery Superfund site in Chesterfield County, Virginia.  

Under the agreement, C&C Cullet Supply Co., J. Solotken & Co., Inc., Tidewater Metals Co. and Virginia Scrap Iron and Metal Co., Inc. will each pay a portion of the settlement because they allegedly contributed minor amounts of contamination to the site.

Each portion is negotiated privately among the four parties and is not a matter of public record.  The agreement was published in the Federal Register on January 28, 1999 for a 30-day public notice period.
 
The 12.6-acre C&R Battery Superfund site is located in an industrial area in Chesterfield County, Virginia six miles southeast of Richmond.  From 1972 to 1985, C&R Battery Co., Inc. leased a 4.3-acre parcel of the site for its business of recovering lead from car and truck batteries.

According to EPA investigators, C&R drained battery acids into unlined lagoons, stockpiled the lead, and buried the battery casings throughout the property.  EPA estimates that C&R Battery processed more than 76 million pounds of waste batteries from at least 168 different parties.  These operations contaminated the soil and sediments with lead, nickel, cadmium, antimony and arsenic.  C&R operations shut down in 1985 and the EPA’s cleanup began in 1986.

The U.S. has previously reached settlements totaling over $1.2 million with 86 other parties also allegedly responsible for hazardous waste contamination at the site.


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