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EPA REACHES $25 MILLION SETTLEMENT WITH OPERATING INDUSTRIES PARTIES

Release Date: 1/12/1999
Contact Information: Lois Grunwald, U.S. EPA, (415) 744-1588

NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS

     The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today it has reached a $25 million settlement with 327 parties for allegedly disposing of comparatively small amounts of waste at the Operating Industries, Inc. (OII) Landfill Superfund site in Monterey Park, Calif. The money will pay for past and future cleanup costs at the site. These parties contributed between 4,200 and 110,000 gallons of waste to the site. The total estimated cost for cleaning up the OII Site is expected to exceed $600 million, including past costs and future EPA response and oversight costs. To date, parties that contributed the most waste to the site have spent or committed over $280 million toward the cleanup. When completed, the OII cleanup, which began in 1984, will protect human health and the environment from the release and migration of contaminants from the landfill. A leachate treatment system and landfill gas collection system have been constructed, and a landfill cover is under construction. Additional systems will treat landfill gas and address groundwater contamination.  EPA has entered into six prior consent decrees and has issued two unilateral orders for the site.

More information about this settlement process can be obtained at U.S. EPA's web site at: https://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/sfund/npl/oii/demin.htm. Information about the OII site can be obtained at: https://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/sfund/npl/oii/index.htm.


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