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Settlement Reached With 197 Parties on Liability at Palmerton Superfund Site

Release Date: 6/23/1999
Contact Information: Ruth Podems, (215) 814-5540

SCRANTON, Pa.-- A $4.7 million settlement has been proposed with 197 parties in connection with the Palmerton Zinc Pile Superfund Site.

The settlement, filed in U.S. District Court in Scranton, will resolve the potential liability of these minor parties who contributed small amounts of hazardous substances to the contamination on site. The settlement reflects the parties’ collective share of cleanup costs at the site.

On April 17, 1998, the U.S. Department of Justice, on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), sued four companies -- Horsehead Industries, Inc. and Horsehead Resource Development Company, Inc. (collectively Horsehead), Viacom International, Inc. and TCI Pacific Communications, Inc.-- to recover EPA’s costs for the ongoing cleanup of the 2,000-plus-acre Superfund site in Palmerton, Carbon County, Pa.

According to the government, the predecessor corporations of Viacom International Inc. and TCI Pacific Communications Inc. operated zinc smelting facilities at Palmerton from 1898 until approximately 1980. Since 1981, Horsehead has processed electric arc furnace (EAF) dust and other zinc-containing material at the facility. These defendants’ activities have caused the site to become contaminated with several hazardous substances, including zinc, copper, lead, arsenic and cadmium. Palmerton was listed as a Superfund site in 1983.

The settling parties sent EAF dust or other zinc-containing material to the Horsehead facilities for processing to recover the zinc. The material was ultimately sent to the Palmerton facility for additional processing. EAF dust, a waste product from steel mills, contains more than 27 separate metals and many other elements and compounds, and is regulated by EPA as a hazardous waste. Horsehead’s processing of the EAF dust and other materials contributed to the contamination at the site.

The site is made up of four contaminated areas, known as operable units. The first operable unit is approximately 2,000 acres on Blue Mountain, of which 1,000 acres has been replanted with vegetation. The second operable unit is a 2.5-mile-long cinder bank composed of more than 30 million tons of smelter residue deposited along the base of Blue Mountain. Studies of the cinder bank are ongoing.

The third operable unit consists of the East Plant that is contiguous to both Blue Mountain and the cinder bank, located in the Borough of Palmerton at 8th Street and Delaware Avenue, the West Plant, which is located approximately two miles to the east in the Borough of Palmerton, and the valley-wide contamination which includes the Borough of Palmerton itself and surrounding areas. EPA has already cleaned up approximately 200 residential properties as part of this phase of the cleanup. EPA expects to issue a Record of Decision this summer detailing additional cleanup actions for this area. The fourth operable unit is the regional surface water and ground water that needs to be studied for impacts from the contamination and the site-wide ecological risk. Studies of these impacts and risk are in progress.

The proposed consent decree announced today is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval.

Note: A list of the settling parties is available upon request from above contact.

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