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Compliance and Enforcement Annual Results:
FY2007 Superfund Enforcement

FY2007 Annual Results Topics

The response and cost recovery commitments from private parties for fiscal year (FY) 2007 exemplify a robust enforcement program.  The total number of settlements of Superfund enforcement actions increased from 276 in FY 2006 to 314 in FY 2007.  The number of settlements for site study and cleanup work increased from 102 in FY 2006 to 140 in FY 2007.  The number of settlements for cost recovery stayed the same at 174 in fiscal years 2006 and 2007. 

Many of the settlements reached with private parties in FY 2007 involved large amounts of money.  For example, EPA entered a final agreement with General Electric Company at the Hudson River PCBs Superfund site in Region 2 for past and future costs valued at $177 million.  In addition, EPA achieved settlements for $99 million at Fort Ord in Region 9, and $30 million at the Fox River Site and $37 million at the Allied Paper site in Region 5. More information on the Superfund and other land case highlights is available at Land Highlights.

EPA’s Superfund enforcement program achieves site cleanup and maximum liable party participation in performing and paying for cleanup in ways that promote environmental justice and fairness.  Fiscal year 2007 activities and results include:

Record Setting Cost Recovery Successes

Once the Agency achieves cost recovery settlement commitments, EPA, with support from the Department of Justice, must ensure that these settlements are collected timely and in full.  EPA had its best year ever in FY 2007 with cost recovery collections totaling over $336 million.  FY 2007 cost recovery settlement commitments totaled $252 million. Cost recovery collections over the life of the Superfund program total approximately $4.5 billion. More information on cost recovery is available on the Superfund enforcement cost recovery web page.

Vertac Collection

In FY 2007 the United States collected more than $127 million for costs incurred from cleanup in Region 6 of the Vertac Chemical (PDF) (4pp, 95KB, About PDF) and Jacksonville Landfill (PDF) (4pp, 46KB, About PDF) sites in EPA’s largest Superfund enforcement judgment.

On May 18, 2007, the United States collected more than $124 million from Hercules Incorporated in satisfaction of judgment for EPA response costs incurred in cleaning up the Vertac Chemical and Jacksonville Landfill Superfund Sites in Jacksonville, Arkansas.  Chemtura Canada Co., formerly known as Uniroyal Chemical Ltd., paid more than $3 million to the United States on May 17, 2007, for a total collection from the two companies of more than $127 million, the largest Superfund enforcement judgment ever collected by EPA.  The money was transferred to the Hazardous Waste Trust Fund.

Dupont Impact on Cost Recovery

EPA continues to work diligently with DOJ to recover past Superfund costs associated with EPA’s oversight of private party cleanup activities (“oversight costs”), which had previously been unrecoverable by EPA because of the 1993 ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (“Third Circuit”) in US v. Rohm & Haas Co., F.3d 1265 (3d Cir. 1993) (“Rohm & Haas”).  The Rohm & Haas decision prevented EPA from recovering oversight costs from sites located in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Twelve years later, in United States v. DuPont, 432 F.3d 161 (3d Cir., 2005), the Third Circuit overruled its previous decision in Rohm & Haas to again allow EPA to recover oversight costs.

As a result of the United States v. DuPont decision, EPA reopened a number of cases where the government had preserved its right to pursue oversight costs and in FY 2007 received, or parties committed to pay, over $5 million in past oversight costs.  These funds will either be placed in the Hazardous Waste Trust Fund or in site-specific special accounts.

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New tools help 'Good Samaritans' remove mine waste, restore watersheds, improve fisheries

In June 2007 EPA cleared legal roadblocks that discourage volunteers from cleaning up abandoned mine sites. The Agency issued new tools that will reduce legal uncertainties for public and private entities, or “Good Samaritans,” to clean up orphan hardrock mine sites responsible for degrading water quality throughout the western United States.

Under the 2007 tools (PDF) (24pp, 162KB, About PDF), EPA and volunteer parties will now be able to enter into "Good Samaritan Settlement Agreements."  These agreements provide key legal protections to Good Samaritans as non-liable parties, including a federal covenant not to sue under the Superfund law, and will provide protection from third-party contribution suits.  The other tool is a model comfort letter (1pp, 16KB, About PDF) intended for Good Samaritan parties.  More information is available on EPA’s Good Samaritan Web site.

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Requiring Federal Agencies to Clean Up Contamination at Their Facilities

Under the federal Superfund law, EPA is responsible for overseeing cleanups done by federal agencies at federal facilities.  EPA and federal agencies enter into agreements to guide cleanup federal facilities at their National Priorities List sites and to govern EPA’s oversight of those cleanups. 

Federal facilities continued to clean up their contaminated sites under enforceable agreements.  Cleanup decisions for this year will address an estimated 55 million cubic yards of contaminated soils and 293 million cubic yards of contaminated water.  This accounts for 25 percent of all clean up commitments by potentially responsible parties in FY 2007.

Agreements Reached in 2007

In 2007 EPA, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico signed an agreement for the cleanup of the Navy’s former Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Area on the island of Vieques, off the east coast of Puerto Rico.  

At the Rocky Flats site near Denver, Colorado, EPA and the Department of Energy agreed on the long-term management of the former nuclear weapons site ensuring that its cleanup continues to protect human health and the environment.

Enforcement Orders when Agreements Cannot be Reached

EPA conducted extensive negotiations at several sites; however, the Agency could not reach cleanup agreements at some federal facilities, which resulted in the issuance of enforcement orders.  The enforcement orders at the facilities identified below ensure that the federal agencies conduct the necessary cleanup work and protect public health and the environment.

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Promoting Redevelopment and Reuse of Contaminated Sites

In FY 2007 OECA promoted not only the cleanup but also the redevelopment and reuse of contaminated sites by defining and addressing liability concerns and promoting the use of pilot projects and innovative settlements.

Empire Canyon Launches ER3 Pilot Project

picture of Administrator Johnson speaking at Empire Canyon event
EPA Administrator Johnson speaking at Empire Canyon ER3 event

On April 17, 2007, EPA Administrator Steve Johnson formally announced the first project under the ER3 initiative where an enforcement incentive influenced a developer to minimize the environmental impacts of a planned redevelopment.

The on-site event publicized the prospective lessee agreement that EPA and DOJ negotiated to address the lessee’s potential Superfund liability in exchange for a commitment to clean up the site and incorporate numerous environmentally friendly and sustainable elements into redevelopment of the site. More information on ER3.

 

 

Redevelopment of Federal Facilities

In 2007, EPA reached agreements with other federal agencies and private developers to clean up several large federal facilities and thereby return them to economically productive reuse.  These cleanups will turn former waste sites into productive, tax-producing properties improving the communities around them.

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Annual Results by Fiscal Year:
FY2008 | FY2007 | FY2006 | FY2005 | FY2004 | FY2003 | FY2002 | FY2001 | FY2000 | FY1999

 

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