The United States has filed a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) action against Olin Corporation and BASF Corporation seeking between $13.4 and $21.5 million in oversight costs, among other things. The Southern District of Alabama complaint, filed late last week, contends that the -Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found contaminants in part of the superfund site for which the defendants are allegedly responsible.
The United States explained that the superfund site is located in McIntosh, Ala., where Olin has reportedly owned and operated a chemical production facility since 1952. Between 1952 and 1984, the filing states, Olin discharged wastewater containing mercury and hexachlorobenze (HCB) into a drainage line flowing into Tombigbee River.
For BASF’s part, the complaint states that the conglomerate currently owns and operates a chemical manufacturing operation, the Ciba-Geigy Plant, on property immediately north of the superfund site. The complaint contends that BASF’s plant has and continues to release dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) and two undesirable by-products created during its manufacture, dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane (DDD) and dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE).
Since it was placed on the National Priorities List in 1984, the EPA organized the parcel into two operable units for environmental management. Without specifying when, the complaint states that the EPA conducted investigations that revealed Mercury, HCB, DDT, DDD, and DDE contamination in the second operable unit, which consists of approximately 220 acres of “open ponded water and seasonally flooded wetland.”
In April 2014, the EPA reportedly issued a Record of Decision setting forth remedial actions to be undertaken in operable unit two. According to the complaint, “[t]he major components of the remedy include a multi-layered cap, further sampling, institutional controls, construction monitoring, maintenance, and long-term monitoring.” The plaintiff now seeks to compel performance of those response actions, asks for reimbursement, and requests a declaratory judgment on liability mandating that the defendants pay for future clean-up efforts.
