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U.S. EPA proposes adding B.F Goodrich site to national Superfund list, will become lead cleanup agency

Release Date: 09/03/2008
Contact Information: Francisco Arcaute, (213) 244-1815, cell (213) 798-1404, arcaute.francisco@epa.gov

LOS ANGELES - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed adding the B.F. Goodrich site, a 160-acre area in western San Bernardino County, Calif., to the Superfund National Priorities List, the federal program that cleans up the nation's uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.

Since the 1940’s, the B.F. Goodrich site has been used by businesses to store, test and manufacture munitions, rocket motors, and pyrotechnics. The area’s soil and groundwater are contaminated with perchlorate and trichloroethylene (TCE), forcing the closure of area public drinking water supply wells in the nearby communities of Rialto and Colton.

“It’s time for the EPA to mobilize its technical, financial, and enforcement resources to put the cleanup back on track”, said Keith Takata, Superfund director of the EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. “Rialto and Colton are counting on us to move ahead as quickly as possible, and proposing this site for the Superfund list makes it clear that this cleanup is a top priority for the EPA.”

Since 2001, the EPA and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board have worked to investigate and clean up the B.F. Goodrich site. Investigation and cleanup work at the site stalled in 2006, when the potentially responsible parties began a series of legal challenges directed at State cleanup efforts.

Perchlorate is used as the primary ingredient of solid rocket propellant and many pyrotechnics, and may affect the thyroid gland. Trichloroethylene, or TCE, is a metal cleaning solvent. Drinking or breathing high levels of trichloroethylene may cause damage to the nervous system, liver and lungs.

To date, 1,587 sites have been placed on the National Priorities List, of which 105 are in California. Nationally, construction has been completed at 1,036 of the 1,587 sites.

For more information on the EPA’s Superfund program, please visit:
https://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/sfund/

For the Federal Register notice and supporting documents, please visit https://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/current.htm