Superfund Site in Los Angeles County Reaches Settlement with EPA
The Cooper Drum superfund site, located just 10 miles from downtown Los Angeles, has reached a $22 million settlement with the EPA in which new groundwater treatment systems will be constructed on the site as well as the company will reimburse the EPA for its past cleanups of the contaminated site.
The Cooper Drum Company was a site for cleaning and reconditioning steel drums that contained hazardous materials such as oils and solvents. The company was in operation from 1974 until 1992, and in that time residual wastes from those steel drums contaminated soils and groundwater around the site. In 2001, the 3.8 acre site was added on the Superfund’s National Priorities List.
“[This] settlement is a binding commitment to pursue the final cleanup of this former industrial site,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “Our goal is to protect the residents of South Gate from the toxic chemicals that have contaminated their local groundwater.”
The EPA has been conducting cleanups and groundwater treatments to the areas for the past 14 years. In this new settlement, Cooper Drum will be spending $15 million to add new groundwater treatment systems (i.e. wells, pipes), and will also be giving $7 million back to the EPA for their previous cleanup efforts.
For more information on the superfund site, please click here.