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EPA Orders Continued Treatment of Contaminated Groundwater at Former Manufacturing Facility in Richmond, Va.

Release Date: 05/21/2013
Contact Information: Donna Heron, 215-814-5113, heron.donna@epa.gov

PHILADELPHIA (May 21, 2013) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached an administrative settlement with Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc. and LSI Corp. regarding a former circuit board manufacturing facility located in Henrico County, at 4500 S. Laburnum Ave., Richmond, Va., requiring the companies to address groundwater contaminated with volatile organic compounds.

Under an administrative order on consent, LSI Corp. which currently operates and maintains a groundwater treatment system at the facility, is required to continue to do so and implement land and groundwater use restrictions at the facility. Should LSI fail to adequately perform the work under the order, Alcatel-Lucent, the former owner of the facility, has agreed to complete the work.

Consisting of 120 acres about five miles east of Richmond, Va., the facility manufactured printed circuit boards and during its manufacturing operations, used and stored chlorinated solvents there.

In 1986, during the repair of a fire main, the facility discovered releases of chlorinated solvents. The soil surrounding the fire main was excavated, pipes were replaced and a sump in the former solvent recovery area of the plant was repaired. In 1989, the large-scale storage and use of methylene chloride and 1,1,1 trichloroethane was discontinued at the facility when it was discovered that those contaminants were in the shallow groundwater table.

In 1996 a groundwater remediation system was constructed which LSI will continue to operate and maintain under the oversight of EPA and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ).

Given that some residual contamination remains on-site, in order to protect human health and the environment, the EPA order requires a variety of land and groundwater use restrictions on the property situated over the contaminated groundwater plume unless it is demonstrated that such restrictions are not necessary to protect human health or the environment. The restrictions include: a prohibition on building any new structure, no residential use, no earth moving activities including soil excavation and drilling, and no new wells.

For more information about EPA's civil enforcement of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), go to: https://www.epa.gov/compliance/cleanup/rcra/