FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ENR

TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 1995 (202) 514-2008

TDD (202) 514-1888

JUSTICE, EPA ANNOUNCE $40 MILLION SUPERFUND SETTLEMENT

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Some of the nation's best-known

companies, including DuPont, General Motors and Chrysler, will
contribute to the $40 million cost of cleaning up a toxic waste
site in Delaware, under an agreement announced today by the
Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Thirty-one businesses will share in the cost of

decontaminating the site, which was found to contain a virtual
who's who of hazardous substances including benzene, arsenic and
other carcinogens. The site is a 27-acre landfill, bordering the
Delaware River, that was operated by the Delaware Sand and Gravel
Company from 1959 to 1976.

Emergency action to protect the area near Wilmington and New

Castle was first taken in 1973. In 1984, EPA removed more than
1600 contaminated drums that were believed to pose an immediate
environmental hazard. Decontamination of the groundwater was
begun several years ago under a separate settlement reached in
connection with the nearby Army Creek Superfund Site.

Today's agreement is part of a consent decree lodged in the

United States District Court in Wilmington, Delaware. Under its
terms, the parties will clean up the site at an estimated cost of
$33.5 million. In addition, they will reimburse the Superfund
and the State of Delaware for the costs of past responses of $4.3
million and $196,000, respectively. The defendants agreed to pay
future response costs, estimated at $1.2 million, and pay all
costs of Department of Justice enforcement since April 1988.

A complete list of the settling defendants is attached. The

defendants involved in this case were sued for sending or hauling
materials to be dumped at the site.

"Today's settlement is a double dose of good news to the

people of Delaware and all taxpayers," said Lois J. Schiffer,
Assistant Attorney General for the Department's Environment and
Natural Resources Division. "A terribly contaminated site will
be cleaned up -- and the clean-up will be paid for by the
companies that used it."

Under the agreement, the settling defendants will remove

several thousand contaminated drums that remain at the site and
will clean the damaged soil by a process called soil vapor
extraction. This treatment technology will draw air through the
soil, stripping it of highly volatile contaminants and capturing
them with a filter. The process will also improve the
biodegradation of contaminants by the soil's own bacteria.

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