161 firms to pay $340 million toward cleanup of California landfill
By Jim Johnson, WasteNews.com

MONTEREY PARK, CALIF. -- More than 160 companies will pay $340 million to help clean up a landfill Superfund site that has been the subject of nearly two decades of remediation.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department have settled with 161 so-called responsible parties and the state of California regarding payment for the cleanup of the Operating Industries Inc. landfill in Monterey Park, which closed in 1984.

The latest $340 million brings the total payments toward remediation to more than $600 million to date, the EPA said.

"Old landfill sites are a problem, both in terms of their harm to the environment and the cost of cleaning up and containing them," said Jane Diamond, acting director for the Superfund program in the Pacific Southwest.

The 190-acre landfill lies about 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles and is divided by a freeway.

Over the life of the landfill, many types of waste have been disposed of, including residential and commercial refuse, liquid waste and various hazardous wastes, according to an EPA history of the site. That includes approximately 300 million gallons of liquid industrial waste.

About 4,000 companies disposed of commercial and industrial waste at the landfill -- ranging from very small quantities to more than 15 million gallons, the EPA said.

The EPA considers about 300 companies to be key potentially responsible parties. Those companies contributed at least 110,000 gallons of waste, the agency said.

This is the last in a series of eight consent decrees agreed to and signed by the EPA and companies that put waste in the landfill, said Lance Richman, coordinator of the EPA´s Operating Industries Superfund project. "There are some additional parties that have not settled, and very likely we´ll be going after them," Richman said.

The agency could issue the remaining companies unilateral orders instructing them to undertake work on the site or face a lawsuit in which the EPA would seek triple damages, Richman said. "It´s rare that that happens," he said about potential legal action.

The amount each company pays is based on the volume of material it placed in the landfill.

Construction during the past 12 years has nearly contained contamination at the site, which began operating in 1948 as the Monterey Park Disposal Co. Operating Industries purchased the site in the 1950s and still owns it, the EPA said.

The latest agreement, the eighth since 1986, will pay for the final cleanup remedy, the EPA said. The completed project will protect against the release and migration of contaminants from the landfill.

The landfill already has a leachate treatment system, a gas collection system and a cover. Cleanup work at the landfill began in 1984.

About 23,000 people live within three miles of the landfill, including 2,100 within 1,000 feet, the EPA said.