Jay Finegan

Double Billing

 

"The material we sent to PAS, rolling oil emulsion, was 95% water and 5% mineral oil containing trace amounts of lead, cadmium, and chromium configured in insoluble compounds," explains Salibra. "One big question is whether lead is in a form that is harmful. The comparison one might make is with sodium. You put sodium in your hand and it will burn. If you put sodium chloride in your hand, it won't burn -- that's table salt. So the way the chemicals are combined affects whether they are hazardous." Unfortunately for Alcan, the government takes the position that there is no difference between the sodiums and the sodium chlorides, which, in effect, leads to the ridiculous conclusion that just about everything is a hazardous substance.

Up at the site in Oswego, meanwhile, there was more bad news. Scientists had found groundwater contamination as deep as 45 feet below the surface. The fish in the streams flowing away from the property had begun to show low levels of contaminants. And although it was not possible to prove any connection between the PAS site and the overall pollution levels in Lake Ontario, it was still a matter of daily reality to the people who lived around it that while you could swim in it, boat on it, and fish in it, you were supposed to eat not more than one-half pound of fish per week, just to be safe.

In June 1984, the EPA signed its "record of decision" for the PAS site -- its final plan for cleanup. The agency proposed to build a slurry wall around the entire property, and install an underground collection system to catch contaminants before they could leach into the nearby aquifers. Then the EPA proposed to cap the site with an impermeable layer of clay. Groundwater testing would be required for the next 30 years.

As moon-suited construction crews went to work, costs mounted quickly -- the new EPA estimate was approaching $8 million. The steering committee, still bogged down on the big question of apportioning costs among the PRPs, was anxious to reach agreement. In desperation, they called Clean Sites Inc., a nonprofit group of mediators who specialize in bringing adversarial Superfund parties to the table. It was June 1985, 23 months since the PRPs first gathered in Manhattan.

James Kohanek seemed to have spent his life preparing to mediate Superfund sites. A former research chemist and a lawyer both, he had spent six years as an EPA enforcement attorney under Superfund before joining Clean Sites. It took Kohanek nine months to bring about an agreement -- nine months of reviewing voluminous data and refining various proposals. Although he investigated the possibility of assigning costs among the companies based on the kinds and the toxicity of chemicals that they had shipped, as some had proposed, that approach proved too complicated, and in the end the committee opted to allocate costs strictly on the basis of volume.

When the consent decree on the PAS site was filed in October 1987, it set the costs of the cleanup to date at $12.3 million. With Alcan Aluminum the only major recalcitrant party, the settlers' share of that cost came to $9.1 million, or about 74%. Another $2 million is likely to be assessed for further groundwater treatment. And even then the liability does not end. Under Superfund, PRPs are liable for the rest of time.

Among the 82 settlers, Industrial Oil Tank Services, the fuel tank cleaners, got off relatively cheaply -- $2,500. Azon, the paper-coating company, ponied up about $8,000 for its 82 drums. For Gary Warfle's Stage Construction, the bite was significant -- $16,000. Jones Chemicals, the other company that hauled someone else's refuse, paid $15,000.

All of that, however, was small change compared to the bill assigned to Schenectady Chemicals, whose share came to $1.3 million, slightly more than for giant Monsanto. In addition, Bob Yunick, the chemist who steered Schenectady Chemicals through the bureaucratic shoals, estimates that travel and meeting costs and legal fees boosted the tab by at least another $100,000. "It was a very, very expensive experience," he says sadly. His outlook was scarcely brightened when he learned that Schenectady Chemicals was named as a PRP at three big Superfund sites in New Jersey.

As for Alcan, a trial date has yet to be set on its claim that only 200 gallons of its contribution to the PAS site in Oswego were toxic. However, more than its potential $3-million liability rides on its claim. So far, Alcan has been named a PRP in at least eight other Superfund cleanups.

Epilogue: During the past year, the EPA has declared that three of the eight satellite sites set up by PAS are Superfund sites in their own right. According to an engineer from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, the combined costs of cleanup could well exceed the $12 million expended for the main PAS site in Oswego. And already the word has gone out from the EPA's regional office in Manhattan: round up the usual suspects.

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