SEFA April 1, 1998 Superfund Fact Sheet Gould Superfund Site Portland, Oregon Alaska Region 10 Idaho 1200 Sixth Avenue Oregon Seattle WA 98101 Washington The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and nine Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) have signed an agreement to complete the cleanup of contaminated soil at the Gould Superfund site. PRPs include any individual or company such as owners of the site, operators, transporters, or generators who might have contributed to the contamination problems at a site. Parties to the Agreement The settling parties to this agreement with EPA are: NL Industries, Inc.; Gould Electronics Inc.; Rhone-Poulenc, Inc.; Johnson Controls, Inc.; Exide Inc.; Lucent Technologies, Inc.; Burlington Northern- Santa Fe Railway Co.; ESCO Corp.; and Schnitzer Investment Corp. Terms of the agreement are proposed in a Consent Decree lodged on March 10, 1998, in U.S. District Court in Portland by the U.S. Department of Justice. The proposed Consent Decree was published in the March 25, 1998, Federal Register which triggered a 30-day public comment period. Written comments should be sent by April 24, 1998 to: Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Department of Justice Washington, DC 20530 Comments should refer to Docket No 90-11- 3-397C Terms of the Proposed Consent Decree The proposed Consent Decree requires the PRPs to: • excavate the remaining battery casings on the Gould property; • excavate and de-water contaminated sediments from the East Doane Lake remnant; • treat lead contaminated materials that pose the main threat; • consolidate contaminated materials, including sediments, treated and untreated stockpiled materials, casings, soil and debris in a lined and capped on-site containment facility (OCF) to be constructed on the Gould property. The remedy also includes groundwater monitoring, institutional controls (which limit future use of the property so that the OCF cap and liner system will not be damaged), and long-term operation and maintenance requirements. The selected remedy defers a cleanup decision on subsurface waste materials located on the Rhone-Poulenc and ESCO properties. The estimated cost of the attempts to implement portions of the previous remedy were $25 million. The cleanup required by the proposed Consent Decree is expected to cost $ 15 million. In addition, all future response costs in excess of $100,000 will be reimbursed to EPA. In exchange for the settling parties commitments to the cleanup, EPA will waive its claim for the reimbursement of $445,301 in past and future response costs. As part of the agreement, both EPA and the settling parties have agreed to covenants not to sue. ------- Background The Gould site is located in a heavily industrialized area northwest of downtown Portland, approximately 1,000 feet southwest of the Willamette River. In addition to lead smelter and recycling operations on the Gould property, other industrial properties within the site included disposal of lead contaminated wastes, and disposal of pesticides, fungicides and insecticides. Much of this area was once part of Doane Lake. Battery and smelter wastes along with a variety of other wastes were used in an attempt to fill in the lake area. The Gould site was added to EPA's National Priorities List in 1983. In March 1988, EPA issued a Record of Decision, a document which identified the recommended actions for cleaning up the contamination. EPA directed several of the settling parties to implement the remedy in January 1992. Difficulties in implementing the original remedy resulted in a ROD Amendment, issued in June 1997, which made changes in portions of the cleanup remedy. ^ y For More Information The proposed Consent Decree, ROD Amendment, and other documents pertaining to the Gould site are available for your review at the Multnomah County Library, 1407 SW Fourth Avenue, and at the EPA Records Center, 7th floor, 1200 Sixth Avenue in Seattle. If you have questions about the site, please call: Chip Humphrey, Project Manager at (503)326-2678, Jean Baker, Community Relations Coordinator at (206) 553-2587. For questions about the proposed Consent Decree, please call: Ted Yackulic, Regional Counsel at (206) 553-1218. The above can also be reached by calling EPA's toll-free number, 800-424-4372. People with impaired hearing or speech may contact EPA's telecommunications device for the hearing impaired (TDD) at (206) 553-1698. To ensure effective communication with everyone, additional services can be made available to persons with disabilities by contacting one of the numbers listed above. ------- |