[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 120 (Wednesday, June 23, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33515-33516]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-16021]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE


Lodging of a Consent Decree Pursuant to the Comprehensive 
Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act and the 
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

    Notice is hereby given that a proposed consent decree in United 
States v. Tucson Airport Authority, et al., Civil No. CIV-99-313-TUC-
WDB, was lodged on June 17, 1999, with the United States District Court 
for the District of Arizona (``Airport Property Decree''). The proposed 
Airport Property Decree would resolve claims under Sections 106 and 107 
of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and 
Liability Act of 1980, 42 U.S.C. 9607, 9607, as amended, and Section 
7003 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, 42 U.S.C. 6973, 
brought against defendants Tucson Airport Authority, the City of 
Tucson, General Dynamics Corporation and McDonnell Douglas Corporation 
(collectively ``Defendants''), to compel performance of response 
actions and to recover response costs incurred and to be incurred by 
the Environmental Protection Agency in connection with the release and 
threatened release of hazardous substances at a portion of the Tucson 
International Airport Area Superfund Site known as the Airport 
Property.
    The proposed Airport Property Decree would resolve the liability of 
the Defendants with respect to the Airport Property. The proposed 
Airport Property Decree would release claims against the Defendants for 
performance of the remedy selected in the Record of Decision entitled 
``Tucson International Airport Area Superfund Site, Tucson, Arizona, 
Airport Property Soils and Shallow Groundwater Zone, Burr-Brown 
Property Soils, Former West-Cap Property Soils'' signed by the 
Environmental Protection Agency on September 30, 1997. The proposed 
Airport Property Decree would also release claims for response costs 
incurred and to be incurred by the Environmental Protection Agency in 
responding to releases and threatened releases of hazardous substances 
at and from the Airport Property. To resolve these claims, the 
Defendants collectively would perform the remedy selected in the 1997 
ROD, would pay $1,719,771.23 to the Hazardous Substances Superfund to 
reimburse the United States for Past Response Costs, and would 
reimburse the United States for all Interim and Future Response Costs.
    The proposed Airport Property Decree includes a covenant not to sue 
by the United States under Sections 106 and 107 of the Comprehensive 
Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, 42 
U.S.C. 9606 and 9607, and under Section 7003 of the Resource 
Conservation and Recovery Act (``RCRA''), 42 U.S.C. 6973.
    The United States also lodged on June 17, 1999, a proposed 
modification to a consent decree entered on June 5, 1991, in United 
States v. Tucson Airport Authority, et al., D. Ariz., Civ. No. 90-587-
TUC-RMB (``TARP Decree''). In return for a single, unallocated payment 
of $35 million to Tucson Airport

[[Page 33516]]

Authority, the United States Department of the Air Force would receive 
a covenant not to take administrative action from the United States 
Environmental Protection Agency under the proposed Airport Property 
Decree, and would effect Final Settlement under the TARP Decree. The 
proposed modification to the TARP Decree is lodged with the Court in 
order to allow the public to evaluate the Environmental Protection 
Agency's covenant not to take administrative action against the 
Department of the Air Force under the proposed Airport Property Decree.
    The Department of Justice will receive, for a period of thirty (30) 
days from the date of this publication, comments relating to the 
proposed Airport Property Decree. Commenters may request an opportunity 
for a public meeting in the affected area, in accordance with Section 
7003(d) of RCRA, 42 U.S.C. 6973(d). Comments should be addressed to the 
Assistant Attorney General for the Environmental and Natural Resources 
Division, Department of Justice, Washington, DC 20530, and should refer 
to United States v. Tucson Airport Authority, et al., D. Ariz, Civil 
No. CIV-99-313-TUC-WDB, DOJ Ref. #90-11-3-369/2.
    The Airport Property Decree and the modification to the TARP Decree 
may be examined at the office of the United States Attorney, District 
of Arizona, 110 S. Church Avenue, Suite 8310, Tucson, Arizona 85701; 
the Region 9 Office of the Environmental Protection Agency, 75 
Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, California 94105; and at the Consent 
Decree Library, 1120 G Street, NW, 3rd Floor, Washington, DC 20005, 
(202) 624-0892. A copy of the proposed Airport Property Decree and 
modification to the TARP Decree may be obtained in person or by mail 
from the Consent Decree Library, 1120 G Street, NW, 3rd Floor, 
Washington, DC 20005. In requesting copies please refer to the 
referenced case and enclose a check in the amount of $80.25 for the 
Airport Property Decree and $8.25 for the modification to the TARP 
Decree (25 cents per page reproduction costs), payable to the Consent 
Decree Library.
Joel Gross,
Chief, Environmental Enforcement Section, Environmental and Natural 
Resources Division.
[FR Doc. 99-16021 Filed 6-22-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-15-M