All News Releases By Date

AGREEMENT REACHED TO ADDRESS CONTAMINATION AT THE WHITEHOUSE OIL PITS SUPERFUND SITE IN JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA

Release Date: 05/16/2002
Contact Information: Dawn Harris-Young, EPA Media Relations, 404-562-8421

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and fourteen Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) have entered into a Consent Decree for a remedial action at the Whitehouse Waste Oil Pits Superfund site in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida. Under the Consent Decree, the PRPs will conduct a remedial action (cleanup) at the site, estimated at a cost of approximately $14 million. The Consent Decree was negotiated as part of a National Allocation Pilot. In accordance with the Allocation Pilot, a neutral third party assigned a percentage of the site cleanup costs to each PRP based on its respective contribution to the contamination. EPA will provide approximately $6.2 million in Mixed Funding for the costs assigned to bankrupt or defunct parties. The Consent Decree was negotiated with PRPs that EPA determined to be major parties based on the shares of responsibility assigned to them. EPA has also entered into a separate settlement with forty-two parties that were allocated smaller shares of responsibility. Proceeds from that settlement will be used to fund the clean-up at the site. Total past and anticipated future costs for the site are approximately $20 million. The site encompasses about 12-acres and is located approximately 10 miles west of Jacksonville, just northwest of the intersection of U.S. Highway 90 and Chaffee Road in Whitehouse, Duval County, Florida. The site was operated as a repository for waste oil sludge and acidic oil re-refinery by-products by Allied Petro-Products, Inc. From 1956 to 1968, Allied excavated and filled seven unlined pits at the site. Allied ceased operations in 1968 and filed for bankruptcy. The Administrative Record is available for public review at Whitehouse Elementary School, 11160 General Avenue in Jacksonville.