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U.S. Settles Claims At Pennsylvania Superfund Site - Defendants to Perform Cleanup & Reimburse Government

Release Date: 12/10/2001
Contact Information: Bonnie Smith, (215) 814-5543 & David Sternberg, (215) 814-5548

Bonnie Smith, (215) 814-5543 & David Sternberg, (215) 814-5548

PHILADELPHIA – The Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of the U.S. have reached a settlement with four companies allegedly liable for the cleanup of the 120-acre Boarhead Farms Superfund Site in Upper Black Eddy, Bridgeton Township, Pa.

The four companies – SPS Technologies, Inc., Ford Motor Co., TI Group Automotive Systems Corp., and Cytec Industries, Inc. (formerly known as American Cyanamid Co.) agreed to complete the ongoing cleanup of the Bucks County site. The four defendants also agreed to reimburse the government $7 million for EPA’s prior cleanup activities and certain future cleanup costs. The settlement was filed in federal court in Philadelphia.

The Boarhead Farms Superfund Site, located on Lonely Cottage Road, is the site of the now-defunct DeRewal Chemical Company, a chemical and waste hauling company. The property is currently owned by the Boarhead Corporation. Manfred DeRewal Sr. is the president of both companies.

For additional information, please see attached Department of Justice press release.

02-64

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 6, 2001 (202) 514-2007
WWW.USDOJ.GOV TDD (202) 514-1888
The United States has reached a settlement with four companies allegedly liable for the cleanup of the 120-acre Boarhead Farms Superfund Site in Upper Black Eddy, Bridgeton Township, Pennsylvania, the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today.
In papers filed today in federal court in Philadelphia, the settling companies – SPS Technologies, Inc., Ford Motor Co., TI Group Automotive Systems Corp., and Cytec Industries Inc. (formerly known as American Cyanamid Co.) agreed to complete the ongoing cleanup of the Bucks County site. The four defendants also agreed to reimburse the government $7 million for EPA’s prior cleanup activities and certain future cleanup costs.
The Boarhead Farms Superfund Site, located on Lonely Cottage Road, is the site of the now-defunct DeRewal Chemical Company, a chemical and waste hauling company. The property is currently owned by the Boarhead Corporation. Manfred DeRewal Sr. is the president of both companies.
In the 1970s, state and local officials responded to several chemical spills at the site and discovered discarded and buried drums throughout the property. Testing of soil, surface water and groundwater revealed contamination by several hazardous substances, including concentrated acids and caustics, paint solvents, pesticides, chloride, chromium, copper, nickel, zinc, copper ammonium sulfate, arsenic pentoxide and copper naptholate.
In 1976, the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas ordered DeRewal and both of his companies to remove all chemicals from the site. In 1989, EPA put the site on the "National Priorities List" for Superfund cleanups. Since 1992, EPA and its contractors have excavated and removed over 2,600 drums of chemicals, constructed a groundwater treatment facility and installed and maintained residential well filtration systems.
According to EPA, the settling defendants generated some of the hazardous substances found at Boarhead. These four companies are among several landowners, waste generators or waste transporters that EPA has identified as being potentially responsible under the Superfund statute for cleaning up the Boarhead site.
In November 1998, EPA issued a "Record of Decision" (ROD) describing the agency’s cleanup plan for the site and later divided the work under this plan into two "operable units." In a prior consent decree, Cytec, Ford and SPS agreed to complete the "Operable Unit 1" (OU-1) work, which includes maintaining and operating the groundwater extraction and treatment system, maintaining the residential well treatment units, implementing a long-term groundwater monitoring program and installing six additional monitoring wells.
In the settlement announced today, these three companies, along with TI Group Automotive Systems LLC, have agreed to perform the remaining "Operable Unit 2" work needed to finish the cleanup at the site. The OU-2 work includes soil aeration, treatment of volatile organic compound "hot spots," excavation and off-site disposal of any remaining buried drums and other activities.
The proposed consent decree is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval.