WHITTIER, Calif. (Legal Newsline) — Sixty-six companies will work to help clean up contaminated groundwater at the Omega Chemical Corporation Superfund site in Whittier, California, the Department of Justice and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have announced.
“We are pleased that the settling parties have come forward to do the work of cleaning up the groundwater contamination to which they and others contributed,” said assistant attorney general John C. Cruden of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This settlement makes excellent progress in cleaning up the Omega site and will also put additional systems in place to monitor and evaluate the level of contamination in order to guide future work.”
The companies will spend a combined $70 million on the installation and operation of wells of a groundwater treatment system. Additionally, the companies will pay $8 million to the EPA for reimbursement, as well as $70,000 to the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.
“Today’s settlement ensures the protection of a vital drinking water source for Los Angeles County,” said regional administrator Jared Blumenfeld of EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region. “The cleanup of this polluted aquifer is critical because groundwater in the region has been depleted because of the drought.”