Rob Walker/FlickrIndustrial steel drums, such as this one, were cleaned at the Cooper Drum Superfund site in South Gate.
The federal government announced this week that a major U.S. chemical manufacturer has agreed to spend approximately $26 million to clean up 17 contaminated sites, including one in California.
Chemtura Corporation is a major producer of flame retardants, chemical polymers and crop protection chemicals, as well as the leading U.S. supplier of pool and spa chemicals.
The company agreed to pay cash to clean up the Cooper Drum Co. Superfund Site in South Gate.
The site has been linked to health concerns at Tweedy Elementary School, a campus separated only by a brick wall from the Cooper Drum site.
The site had been used for nearly 50 years to clean large steel drums.
Since 1987, at least eight soil samplings have been taken at the Superfund site. Initial testing indicated tainted soils nearly 30 feet below the surface and contaminated water nearly 53 feet below. Significant levels of volatile organic compounds, petroleum hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and lead were discovered.
Approval of the settlement depends on assent from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber in New York, who is overseeing the Middlebury, Ct.-based company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
"We are pleased that we were able to negotiate this agreement with the Department of Justice," Chemtura spokesman John Gustavsen told Reuters news service.
He added that the chemical company is "working toward getting a consensual reorganization plan approved and to emerge from bankruptcy as soon as possible."
Californians carry the world's highest concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in their bodies.
Comments
via Twitter