General Industry News

49 Parties Sign on to Continue Toxic Dump Cleanup

The Santa Maria facility had collected more than 5 billion pounds of waste.

The EPA reached a $1.2 million settlement with 49 small parties, called de-minimis parties, for the Casmalia Resources Superfund Site (CRSS) – a former hazardous waste disposal facility that accepted approximately 5.6 billion pounds of waste from nearly 10,000 generators between 1973 and 1989. The CRSS is located approximately 10 miles southwest of the Santa Maria in Santa Barbara County, Calif.

This is the fifth in a series of de-minimis settlements at the site. To date, more than $110 million has been collected toward cleanup of hazardous waste that generators disposed at the site and from the site’s former owner-operators.

“EPA is committed to making polluters pay their fair share for as long as necessary,” said Jared Blumenfeld, regional administrator for EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region. “We will continue to reduce environmental threats to the communities and businesses near this Superfund site until we are confident that the job is done.”

The agreement requires the 49 parties to pay a proportionate share of the estimated $284 million total cost of cleaning up the site and resolves their liability for the more than 13 million pounds of waste they collectively sent to the CRSS. The settlement includes cleanup costs and potential natural resource damage claims by various government agencies including threats to endangered species and other habitats. As part of the agreement, the EPA will collect a total of over $1.2 million, equal to approximately nine cents per pound of waste that the parties sent to the site.

The EPA assumed the role as the lead regulatory agency in 1992 after the facility's owners and operators abandoned efforts to clean up the site. The agency undertook emergency response action activities, while concurrently seeking participation in site work by former customers of the facility. The site was placed on the National Priorities List in September 2001.

Notice of the proposed Administrative Settlement Agreement and Order on Consent will be available for a 30-day public comment period following publication in the Federal Register.

Click on this link for more information on the Casmalia Resources Superfund Site. To view the Federal Register notice and supporting documents, please visit please click on this link.

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Roy D. Bigham has been the editor of Pollution Engineering since 2002. Bigham attended Eastern Michigan University where he majored in chemistry and computer science with an associates degree in mathematics. He has worked as a laboratory technician at a research laboratory, managed an electroplating operation and an associated analytical laboratory. He spent three years overseeing environmental operations of five domestic and five overseas operations for a major manufacturer in the Detroit area. He then managed a field services department for an environmental analytical laboratory before moving on to a position as an environmental engineer for a construction aggregates company.

Bigham won a design award for a waste water treatment system for a landfill in the Detroit area from the State Chamber of Commerce. He has been active in the environmental field since 1980.

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