[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 28 (Tuesday, February 11, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6916-6918]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-3413]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-7450-5]


Proposed CERCLA Administrative Cost Recovery Settlements: 
Stickney Avenue Landfill and Tyler Street Dump Superfund Sites

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice; request for public comment.

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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), notice is hereby given of two proposed 
administrative settlements for recovery of past response costs 
concerning the Stickney Avenue Landfill and Tyler Street Dump Superfund 
Sites in Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio, between the United States 
Environmental Protection Agency (``U.S. EPA'' or ``the Agency'') and 
the following nine settling parties:

International Paper (f.k.a. Chase Bag);
The Dial Corporation;
Earl Scheib of Ohio, Inc.;
Eastman Kodak Company;
Hanson Building Materials America, Inc., (f/k/a Hanson North America, 
Inc.), as successor to Dura Corporation;
Reichert Stamping Company;
SafetyKleen Envirosystems Company, (f.k.a. Inland Chemical 
Corporation);
The Sherwin-Williams Company;
Sunoco, Inc. (R&M).

    There are two separate settlement agreements. One agreement covers 
a settlement between U.S. EPA and SafetyKleen Envirosystems Company

[[Page 6917]]

(SafetyKleen); the other agreement memorializes the settlement between 
U.S. EPA and the other nine PRPs. The settlements require the settling 
parties to pay a total of $244,427 to the Hazardous Substance 
Superfund. The settlements also include a covenant not to sue the 
settling parties pursuant to section 107(a) of CERCLA, 42 U.S.C. 
9607(a).
    For 30 days following the date of publication of this notice, the 
Agency will receive written comments relating to the settlements. The 
Agency will consider all comments received and may modify or withdraw 
its consent to the settlements if comments received disclose facts or 
considerations which indicate that the settlements are inappropriate, 
improper, or inadequate. The Agency's response to any comments received 
will be available for public inspection at the following locations:

Toledo Public Library, Main Branch, Science & Technology Dept., 325 
Michigan St., Toledo, OH.
Toledo Public Library, West Toledo Branch, 1320 Sylvania Ave., Toledo, 
OH.
Toledo Public Library, Point Place Branch, 2744 110th St., Toledo, OH.
Records Center, U.S. EPA, Region 5, 7th Floor, 77 W. Jackson Blvd., 
Chicago, IL 60604.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before March 13, 2003.
    Background: The Stickney Site is a 50-acre piece of property 
located at 3900 Stickney Avenue, in the City of Toledo, Lucas County, 
Ohio. The Site is approximately 5\1/2\ miles upstream from the point 
where the Ottawa River discharges into Lake Erie. It is bordered to the 
west and northwest by the Ottawa River, to the north and south by 
privately-owned property, and to the east by Stickney Avenue. The 
Stickney site was used for the disposal of municipal waste by the City 
of Toledo from the late 1950's to about 1966, at which time the 
landfill was covered with soil, graded, and seeded. In addition to 
municipal waste, commercial and industrial waste was also disposed at 
the Site.
    The Tyler Site is a 41-acre piece of property located on Tyler 
Street, in the City of Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio, across the Ottawa 
River from the Stickney Site (the Ottawa River borders Tyler to the 
south and east). The Tyler Site is bordered on the north by the F.S. 
Royster Corporation (Royster) site, by railroad tracks, and by small 
industrial facilities and residences. The City of Toledo operated the 
Tyler Site as a municipal co-disposal landfill. According to documents 
in U.S. EPA files and those of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency 
(Ohio EPA), wastes were accepted at the Tyler Site between about 1955 
and 1968. Other available records indicate that the Site may have 
operated as early as 1951 and as late as the early 1970s.
    On March 9, 1993, U.S. EPA conducted a Screening Site Inspection 
(SSI) for the Stickney Site and for the Tyler Site. The SSI indicated 
that hazardous substances from surface soils and leachate at both Sites 
were being released or posed a threat of release to the Ottawa River.
    Immediately adjacent to the Stickney Site on the south is an area 
generally referred to as the ``XXKem Site'' (a.k.a. S.M. Allen or 
Incorporated Crafts). The 13-acre XXKem facility formerly was occupied 
by companies which performed waste solvent and waste oil fuel blending 
operations. The XXKem Site is divided by a fence line which separates 
the front (east) portion (approximately 6 acres) from the central 
portion, which contains a closed lagoon. The Stickney Site is 
hydrogeologically down-gradient of the XXKem Site. Between 1959 and 
1969, Borden Chemical Printing Ink of Whitehouse, Ohio, disposed of 
wastes, presumably related to the manufacturing of inks, at the XXKem 
Site. Incorporated Crafts, Inc., operated on the XXKem Site between 
1974 and 1981, using the lagoon for the disposal of liquid wastes from 
various industrial processes. Under a 1981 consent decree with the 
State of Ohio, Incorporated Crafts was ordered to close the lagoon. 
Under the terms of the decree, liquid wastes were to be removed from 
the lagoon and transported off site for treatment/disposal. The decree 
also provided for backfilling the lagoon with non-metallic auto 
demolition material, capping with clay and topsoil, and seeding. 
Closure was completed in 1983. However, an Expanded Site Inspection 
(ESI) conducted in 1994 and a Supplemental ESI performed in 1995 (both 
of which were conducted by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency 
(OEPA) under a Cooperative Agreement with U.S. EPA) indicated that 
significant subsurface soil contamination remained in the former lagoon 
area, contamination that had migrated to the groundwater at the XXKem 
Site and the adjacent Stickney Site, posing a potential threat to the 
Ottawa River.
    In May 1994, U.S. EPA signed an Administrative Order on Consent 
with a group of six PRPs for the Stickney and Tyler Sites for the 
performance of an Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis (EE/CA) at the 
Stickney and Tyler Sites. During the EE/CA investigation for the 
Stickney Site, it became apparent that it would be necessary to cap a 
portion of the adjacent XXKem Site in order to tie the Stickney cap 
into native soils (fill at XXKem and Stickney were contiguous). The 
Final EE/CAs were approved on September 14, 1995, and included separate 
Streamlined Risk Evaluations (SREs) for the Stickney and Tyler Sites. 
On January 22, 1996, based on the results of the SREs and the analysis 
set forth in the EE/CAs, U.S. EPA issued separate Enforcement Action 
Memoranda (EAM), selecting non time-critical removal actions for the 
Stickney and Tyler Sites. The Stickney EAM also contained a response 
action decision for the former lagoon at the XXKem Site. Subsequent 
investigations of the sludge at the bottom of the disposal lagoon at 
XXKem and the groundwater impacted by that sludge provided evidence 
that sludge at the bottom of the closed lagoon contained significant 
levels of organic pollutants, PCBs, and inorganic pollutants, and that 
these pollutants were migrating via the groundwater to the Stickney 
Site and becoming commingled with contaminants in the latter. This led 
U.S. EPA to issue an action memorandum for the XXKem Site in January 
1998 (``XXKem Action Memorandum''). The XXKem Action Memorandum called 
for the construction of a leachate extraction system near the XXKem/
Stickney boundary, the purpose being to stop the migration of XXKem 
pollutants to the groundwater under the Stickney Site. This Action 
Memorandum was subsequently implemented through Administrative Orders 
by Consent negotiated with the City of Toledo and SafetyKleen.
    Subsequently, U.S. EPA entered into an administrative consent order 
with a group of PRPs collectively known as the Stickney/Tyler 
Administrative Group (``STAG''), which consisted of the original six 
PRPs who had performed the EE/CA and numerous additional parties. In 
order to come to agreement with U.S. EPA, STAG conducted a private 
allocation process, which was presided over by a third-party neutral. 
Although U.S. EPA was not a party to the allocation process, the Agency 
subsequently received a copy of the allocator's report and reviewed the 
rationales set forth in the report. The Administrative Order by Consent 
(AOC) with STAG was signed by U.S. EPA on February 27, 1998. This AOC 
required STAG to install landfill caps at the Stickney and Tyler Sites, 
as required by the Enforcement Action Memoranda for these two Sites.

[[Page 6918]]

Cost Recovery Settlements

    Based in part on the allocation process completed by STAG, U.S. EPA 
has determined that the settlements identified above are appropriate to 
resolve any cost recovery claims of U.S. EPA in connection with the 
Stickney and Tyler Sites. The settlements proposed in this Notice are 
with parties who did not join the administrative consent order between 
U.S. EPA and STAG to perform the response actions at these sites. 
Specifically, after the administrative consent order with STAG, U.S. 
EPA identified ten non-settling PRPs who, based on the allocation, had 
significant liability for the Agency's response costs; U.S. EPA 
subsequently negotiated cost recovery agreements with nine of these 
entities, who are identified above (the only remaining PRP is First 
Medical Group). The agreement reached with the PRPs other than 
SafetyKleen was based on the allocation of responsibility prepared by 
the third-party neutral for STAG, as well as information provided 
during settlement negotiations regarding the level of responsibility 
attributable to each PRP.
    The agreement with SafetyKleen was based on that company's 
responsibility for its predecessor's disposal activities at the XXKem 
Site. SafetyKleen's predecessor-in-interest, Inland Chemical Company, 
was responsible for the disposal of toxic chemicals at the central 
portion of the XXKem Site, which was capped by STAG as part of the 
Stickney action. The capped area at XXKem consists of approximately 5.5 
acres, while the total capped area covering the Stickney and XXKem 
Sites is equal to approximately 50 acres. Therefore, the capped area at 
XXKem represents 11 percent (11%) of the total capped area covering the 
Stickney and XXKem Sites. This percentage was applied to the United 
States' unrecovered past costs for the Stickney Site. The resulting 
calculation of the costs associated with the investigation and capping 
of the XXKem portion were $53,232. U.S. EPA applied a 15 percent 
premium to this amount because SafetyKleen had not joined STAG in 
implementing the remedy for the Stickney Site; this premium yielded 
$61,217, which was rounded down to $60,000 for purposes of settlement.
    U.S. EPA has determined that the cost recovery agreements 
negotiated with these nine entities are appropriate. In addition, the 
United States Department of Justice reviewed these agreements and gave 
its concurrence on December 9, 2002.

ADDRESSES: The proposed settlement is available for public inspection 
at the following locations:

Toledo Public Library, Main Branch, Science & Technology Dept., 325 
Michigan St., Toledo, OH.
Toledo Public Library, West Toledo Branch, 1320 Sylvania Ave., Toledo, 
OH.
Toledo Public Library, Point Place Branch, 2744 110th St., Toledo, OH.
Records Center, U.S. EPA, Region 5, 7th Floor, 77 W. Jackson Blvd., 
Chicago, IL.

    Comments should reference the Stickney Avenue Landfill, 3900 
Stickney Avenue, City of Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio, and/or the Tyler 
Street Dump, City of Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio and EPA Docket No. V-W-
03-C-723 or V-W-03-C-724, and should be addressed to James Cha, 
Associate Regional Counsel, 77 West Jackson Blvd., Mail Code C-14J, 
Chicago, Illinois 60604. Copies of the proposed settlements may be 
obtained from Deloris Johnson, Paralegal, Office of Regional Counsel, 
77 West Jackson Blvd., Mail Code C-14J, Chicago, Illinois 60604, (312) 
886-6806.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James Cha, Associate Regional Counsel, 
77 West Jackson Blvd., Mail Code C-14J, Chicago, Illinois 60604, (312) 
886-0813.

    Dated: January 24, 2003.
William Muno,
Director, Superfund Division.
[FR Doc. 03-3413 Filed 2-10-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P