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EPA REACHES SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT AT THE PARKER LANDFILL SUPERFUND SITE

Release Date: 08/13/1997
Contact Information: Sheila Eckman, EPA Project Manager at 617/573-5784 Lynda Provencher, Vermont Project Manager at 802/241-3883 Sarah White, EPA Community Relations Coordinator, 617/918-1026

BOSTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Justice and State of Vermont have reached an agreement with 13 of the 14 potentially responsible parties to construct a cap at the Parker Landfill Superfund Site in Lyndon, Vt.

Under the settlement, the parties have agreed to pay for and perform construction and maintenance of a landfill cap, which is estimated to cost $7.8 million. To prevent local businesses and residents from bearing the brunt of the cleanup cost, the EPA will reimburse the settling parties up to approximately $3 million toward the construction of the cap. In addition, the EPA and State of Vermont have agreed to forgive approximately $400,000 in past costs and provide an initial credit of $600,000 toward future costs to some of the parties as part what is called "orphan share reform".

"This settlement will carry the Parker Landfill down the home stretch to cleanup while removing a significant portion of the financial burden that would have been placed on the settling parties," said John P. DeVillars, administrator of the EPA's New England office. "This agreement will translate into a cleaner, safer environment for the people of Lyndon."

The settlement, known as a "consent decree," culminates two years of negotiations between the EPA, DOJ, State of Vermont and the settling parties. The EPA will pursue the remaining responsible party for completion of the site cleanup, including a groundwater containment system, institutional controls in the area outside the cap and long-term monitoring.

The EPA will hold a public informational meeting this fall to coincide with the construction of a landfill gas collection system. Ethan Allen, Inc. is currently designing the landfill cap under a separate legal agreement with the EPA. Capping is expected to be completed in the summer of 1998.

Settling parties include: Aldrich Formica Center; Bi-Tec Industries; Burndy Corporation; Coltec Industries, Inc./Fairbanks Scales, Inc.; Dairy Assoication Company, Inc.; EHV-Weidman; Ethan Allen, Inc.; Foster Industries, Inc.; Jenne Brothers Machine Shop; Dean Parker/Ray O. Parker & Son, Inc.; Rapid Rubbish Removal; and Vermont Flexible Tubing, Inc.

Site History
he 25-acre Parker Landfill operated as a solid waste landfill from 1972 to 1992. Prior to 1983, roughly one million gallons of liquid waste and 760 tons of solid or semi-solid wastes including metal plating wash waters, waste oils, electroplating, paint and chlorinated solvents, sludges, caustic cleaners and metallic salts were disposed of in at least three areas of the landfill. Previous owners poured liquids and sludges onto the ground into unlined pits and lagoons.

The EPA named the Parker Sanitary Landfill a Superfund site in 1990.