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Company Ordered To Pay $8.6 Million To Clean Up Superfund Site

September 13, 2005

Oeser Co., a wood treatment plant in Bellingham, Washington, is now obligated to pay at least $8.6 million to finish cleaning up hazardous chemicals at its site under a settlement with the federal government.

$14 million has already been spent by the EPA to investigate and clean up the contaminated areas at the Oeser Co., which became a federal Superfund site in 1997.

The remaining cleanup at the 26-acre site could cost as little as $3.8 million, but could also cost as much as $6 million, federal officials said Wednesday.

Under the settlement, Oeser officials have come to an agreement with the EPA to conduct the final action. The company agreed to place the necessary funds into two trust accounts that will be used to cover the cost of the cleanup and reimburse the EPA, if necessary.

The company has also agreed to the term of a $500,000 contribution to a trust account held by the City of Bellingham. The contribution will be used to clean up nearby Little Squalicum Creek.

The Oeser site has been in use since the late 1940s for wood-treating operations, including treatment of utility and transmission poles. One chemical used by the company until the mid-1980s is creosote, a wood preservative.

The creosote along with hazardous substances including pentachlorophenol, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, and dioxin have all contributed to the contamination of the soil and groundwater over the 60 years of operations at the Oeser site, EPA officials said.

The settlement shows that the EPA is committed to ensuring that hazardous waste sites are cleaned up, and that public funds used for cleanups are paid back into the Superfund.

The Superfund ensures that the EPA has enough funds to continue its cleanup work at other sites, said an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division.

Christopher Secrist, the company president, said that they have finally reached a conclusion after an eight-year process. The company is supportive of their role in the cleanup and they are anxious to help.

The company is mostly anxious to put this whole incident behind them and to begin creating a product that will benefit society and nature.

In 1997, the EPA placed Oeser on the Superfund list of the nation's most contaminated hazardous waste sites. The list was created by Congress as a means to make polluters clean up toxic messes.

The EPA completed a priority cleanup of the site to address the areas of highest contamination in 1999, and issued a study of the site in 2002.

In 2003 the agency decided to excavate the site and dispose of some contaminated soil at another location. Other soils will be capped, and use of groundwater will be restricted and monitored.

The agreement allows the company to do their part to cleanup and protect human health, while still using the property.