PADUCAH, Ky. (Legal Newsline) - A western Kentucky waste management company is suing companies that disposed of waste in a Calvert City Superfund Site.
The suit was filed Aug. 31 in the U.S. District Court for Western Kentucky. The 32-acre site along the banks of the Ohio River is among the worst such Superfund sites in the country. It was once one of the largest hazardous waste facilities in the nation.
Companies that have used the site include Air Products and Chemical, FMC, Chevron, Eastman Kodak and Goodrich Corp, General Environmental Services and Bluegrass Incineration, the most recent operator.
The group entered into an arrangement in 2007 with the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the site. But now they want other former users - more than 300 of them - to contribute to the cost. As of Sept. 1, the group has paid $9.5 million toward cleaning up the site. It is estimated that the total cost will be between $20 million and $30 million.
The EPA estimated that the site received about 1.27 billion pounds of hazardous waste from more than 4,000 generators. The companies were located across the United States from New York to Washington State.
Among those named in the suit are the Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District, the University of Illinois, Bass Pro Shops, City of Bowling Green, and Allegheny County Pennsylvania.