[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 11 (Friday, January 16, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2679-2680]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-1247]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-5951-4]


Proposed CERCLA Administrative Cost Recovery Settlement Pursuant 
to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and 
Liability Act; Stickney Avenue Landfill, Toledo, OH

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice; request for public comment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: In accordance with section 122(i) of the Comprehensive 
Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, as amended 
(CERCLA), 42 U.S.C. 9622(I), notification is hereby given of a proposed 
administrative settlement by consent, pursuant to CERCLA sections 
106(a), 107 and 122(h), 42 U.S.C. sections 9606(a), 9607 and 9622, 
concerning the Stickney Avenue Landfill and Tyler Street Landfill Sites 
in Lucas County, Toledo, Ohio. The settling parties are listed in 
section B of this document.
    The settlement requires that the settling parties construct multi-
layer landfill cover systems over the Stickney Avenue Landfill, the 
Tyler Street Landfill, and the central portion of the XXKem facility, 
as defined in the Enforcement Action Memoranda for the Stickney Avenue 
and Tyler Street Landfills. The settlement includes EPA's covenant not 
to sue the settling parties pursuant to section 106 and 107 of CERCLA, 
42 U.S.C. sections 9606 and 9607, for the work which is to be completed 
pursuant to the settlement, and for the recovery of past response costs 
and the payment of oversight costs. The EPA's authority to enter into 
this administrative settlement agreement was conditioned upon the 
approval of the Attorney General of the United States (or her 
delegatee); this approval has been obtained.
    For thirty (30) days following the date of publication of this 
notice, the Agency will receive written comments relating to the 
settlement. The Agency will consider all comments received and may 
modify or withdraw its consent to the settlement if comments received 
disclose facts or considerations which indicate that the settlement is 
inappropriate, improper, or inadequate. The Agency's response to any 
comments received will be available for public inspection at the 7th 
Floor Records Center, (for address, see below).

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before February 17, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be addressed to Sherry Estes, Office of 
Regional Counsel, Mail Code C-14J, U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency, Region 5, 77 West Jackson Blvd., Chicago, Illinois, 60604-3590, 
and should reference the Stickney Avenue Landfill and Tyler Street 
Landfill Sites, Toledo, Ohio.
    The proposed AOC embodying the settlement agreement and additional 
background information relating to the settlement are available for 
public inspection at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 
5, Superfund Division Record Center (address above), or a copy of the 
proposed AOC may be obtained from Sherry L. Estes.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sherry L. Estes, Office of Regional 
Counsel, (address above) or call (312) 886-7164.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Background

    The Stickney Avenue Landfill and Tyler Avenue Landfill are located 
in Lucas County, Toledo, Ohio. The Sites are 50-acre and 41-acre, 
respectively, inactive municipal, commercial, industrial and 
institutional landfills located along the Ottawa River, upstream from 
the point where the Ottawa River discharges into the Maumee Bay and 
Lake Erie. Fifty-eight known dump sites, including Stickney

[[Page 2680]]

and Tyler, along with combined sewer overflows, agricultural pollution 
and sediment desposition, have caused severe pollution problems in the 
Maumee Bay.
    Separate Engineering Evaluations/Cost Analyses (EE/CAs) were 
performed for the Stickney Avenue and Tyler Street Landfills, which 
studied the nature and extent of the contamination at the sites and 
evaluated the presumptive remedy for municipal landfills. Based upon 
the analyses contained in the EE/CA, EPA issued proposed plans for 
public comment from October 16, 1995, through December 15, 1995 and 
responded to the substantive comments received during this period. 
Enforcement Action Memoranda (EAM), embodying the EPA's response action 
decision for the two sites, were issued on January 22, 1996. The EAM 
call for the installation of a multi-layer cover system in compliance 
with the functional requirements of the Ohio Administrative Code, 
landfill gas collection and passive venting to the atmosphere, and 
institutional controls.
    Immediately south of the Stickney Avenue Landfill is the XXKem 
facility, which formerly was occupied by companies which performed 
waste solvent and waste fuel oil blending operations. This site is 
divided by a fence line which separates the front (east) portion from 
the central portion, which contains a closed lagoon. The EAM for the 
Stickney Avenue Landfill also calls for the same multi-layer cover 
system that will be installed at Stickney to be installed over the 
closed lagoon area. It should also be noted that further EPA response 
action decisions are anticipated for the central portion of the XXKem 
facility.

B. Settling Parties

    Proposed settling parties are: Allied Signal Inc.; AP Parts 
International, Inc.; Blade Communications, Inc.; BFI Waste Systems of 
North America, Inc., successor to Browning-Ferris Industries of Ohio 
and Michigan, Inc.; Centerior Energy Corporation; Chevron U.S.A., Inc.; 
Chrysler Corporation; City of Toledo, a municipal corporation; Cooper 
Industries; Cytec Industries, Inc.; Dana Corporation; E.I. du Pont de 
Nemours and Company; Envirosafe Services of Ohio, Inc. f/k/a Fondessey 
Enterprises Inc.; Flower Hospital; Gencorp, Inc.; Mercy Hospital of 
Toledo, Ohio Inc.; Owens-Illinois, Inc. and Libbey Glass Inc.; 
Riverside Hospital; Northcoast Health Systems, Inc.; St. Charles 
Hospital of Oregon, Ohio; St. Luke's Hospital; St. Vincent Medical 
Center, Inc.; The Toledo Hospital; Promedica Health Systems, Inc.; City 
Auto Stamping Division of Shellar-Globe Corporation, n/k/a United 
Technologies Automotive Systems, Inc.; and Waste Management of Ohio, 
Inc.

C. Description of Settlement

    In exchange for the settling parties' agreement to design, finance 
and construct the multi-layer cover systems at the Stickney Avenue and 
Tyler Street Landfills and the central portion of the XXKem facility, 
according to the EAM for the Stickney and Tyler sites, EPA covenants 
not to sue or issue administrative orders to the settling parties, 
pursuant to section 106 and 107 of CERCLA, as described above. The EAM 
estimated that the cumulative costs for the multi-layer cover systems 
at Stickney, Tyler and the central portion of the XXKem sites would 
total approximately $26 million.
    During the 1995 public comment period on the proposed plans, 
several commenters raised concerns that the proposed plans did not call 
for the installation of a leachate collection system at the sites. 
However, in the EAM, EPA found that the installation of multi-layer 
cover systems should obtain the rapid reduction in risk to human health 
and to the Ottawa River which is anticipated in the EE/CAs. The Scope 
of Work which is incorporated into the proposed AOC calls for the 
detailed monitoring of the leachate and modeling of the reduction in 
risk. If, contrary to the expectations of the settling parties and EPA, 
the anticipated reduction in risk is not achieved, EPA retains the 
authority to determine that additional response actions are required. 
While the settling parties would not be required to perform these 
additional response actions under the terms of the proposed AOC, EPA 
has reserved its rights to initiate additional enforcement actions 
under sections 106(a) and 107 of CERCLA.
    EPA is not, pursuant to this document, requesting further comment 
on the response action determinations embodied in the EAM. This Notice 
requests comment on the fairness and appropriateness of the proposed 
AOC, including the AOC's covenant not to sue provisions. EPA's 
unreimbursed past costs total approximately $500,000; oversight costs 
for the work would be completed pursuant to the proposed AOC are 
estimated at $200,000. Thus, in exchange for compromising potential 
claims for approximately $700,000 against the settling parties, EPA is 
assuring that removal actions worth over $26 million are accomplished 
at the Stickney and Tyler sites, and the central portion of the XXKem 
facility.
    If, after the consideration of comments during the public comment 
period, EPA retains its prior consent to the AOC and finalizes the 
settlement, the Contribution Protection Section of the AOC states EPA's 
belief that the settling parties are entitled to contribution 
protection to the extent provided by section 113(f) and 122(h)(4), 42 
U.S.C. sections 9613(f)(2), and 9622(h)(4). It should also be noted 
that the contribution protection section of the AOC expressly reserves 
contribution claims as to the central portion of the XXKem facility. 
Therefore, the settling parties have reserved any claims that they 
might have as against each other for the central portion of the XXKem 
facility, and would also be subject to contribution claims for the 
central portion of the XXKem facility, to the extent that such claims 
exist, from entities which are not parties respondent to this proposed 
AOC.

    Dated: January 13, 1998.
William E. Muno,
Director, Superfund Division.
[FR Doc. 98-1247 Filed 1-15-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P