EPA and DOJ settle with 66 companies for cleanup of Omega Chemical Corp. Superfund Site

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently reached an agreement with 66 companies that will see them providing approximately $70 million for the cleanup of the Whittier, California Omega Chemical Corp. Superfund Site.

“We are pleased that the settling parties have come forward to do the work of cleaning up the groundwater contamination to which they and others contributed,” DOJ Environment and Natural Resources Division Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden said. “This settlement makes excellent progress in cleaning up the Omega site and will also put additional systems in place to monitor and evaluate the level of contamination in order to guide future work.”

The companies funding will go toward installing wells and running a groundwater treatment system, which will be developed throughout 2016 and early 2017 and constructed in 2018. The companies will also reimburse the EPA and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control for work already done on the site, with $8 million and $70,000 respectively.

“Today’s settlement ensures the protection of a vital drinking water source for Los Angeles County,” EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Jared Blumenfeld said. “The cleanup of this polluted aquifer is critical because groundwater in the region has been depleted because of the drought.”