vvEPA

Enforcement

Addressing Community Needs in
Cortland, New York

The Value of Environmental Enforcement

At the Buckbee-Mears site in Cortland, New York, EPA's
environmental enforcement mechanisms and resources have played
a vital role in protecting public health, achieving environmental
restoration, and supporting reuse. These outcomes are providing
long-term community benefits for the City of Cortland and Cortland
County.

Following a time-critical removal action, EPA's environmental
enforcement program facilitated the completion of two innovative
settlement agreements that were critical in resolving competing
liens filed against the property. These efforts by EPA enforcement
staff resulted in clear title to the property, sale of the property at
auction by the Bank of India, and additional restoration work by
a new owner to prepare the site for future use. EPA also funded
a study documenting the site's cleanup status, helping to clarify
which portions of the property would be suitable for varying types of
reuse and providing recommendations on how to address potential
reuse barriers.

Environmental Enforcement
Benefits the Community

Environmental and public health impacts affect
people most significantly where they live. EPA
works to provide strong, effective enforcement
support to all communities. As the Agency
implements environmental and public health
improvements across the country, EPA is looking for
new ways to assist communities in environmentally
overburdened, underserved, and economically
distressed areas where the needs are greatest.

Today, those plans have been realized. The settlement agreements
and documentation of the site's cleanup status have helped
to transform an abandoned and contaminated burden into a
refurbished industrial park capable of supporting the community's
economic development goals. Thousands of gallons of unsecured
and hazardous chemicals at the former manufacturing facility
had threatened public health. Now well secured and maintained
by a new owner, the property will soon be home to a wood pellet
manufacturing operation.

Enforcement First:

Polluters Pay, Not Taxpayers

EPA enforcement makes sure that responsible
parties - governments, businesses and other
parties - meet their obligations under the
nation's environmental laws to protect public
health and the environment. Using the
enforcement first approach, EPA identifies
parties responsible for contamination and
compels them to clean it up or pay for the
cleanup, and works with diverse stakeholders
to ensure the long-term protectiveness of public
health and the environment. The enforcement
p rogra m a I so s u p ports co m m u n ity revita I izati o n
by providing guidance materials and site-
specific tools that help stakeholders address
liability concerns and plan for the future.

nee an abandoned and vandalized property, this site nowpr
economic development opportunities for the community,

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The site's location in Cortland, New York.

Buckbee-Mears
Site

o

NORTH

I Miles

Sources: Esri, DeLorme, AND, Tele Atlas, First American, UNEP-
WCMC and USGS.

Site and Community Overview

Cortland, a small city of about 19,000 people in the
southern tier of New York, is located about 30 miles south
of Syracuse. For more than a century, the area was a major
industrial and manufacturing hub. The Buckbee-Mears
plant was a vital part of the local economy in the second
half of the 20th century; the facility employed as many
as 1,100 people. Beginning in the late 1970s, however,
changes in the global economy hit the community hard.
Industry and manufacturing jobs moved overseas, taking
away cornerstones of the region's economy. The city and
county continue to struggle as additional companies
have closed, relocated, or consolidated in other places.
Economic development remains a longstanding priority
for both localities.

The Buckbee-Mears site is part of a larger 75-acre
property, occupying 50.6-acres. The property also
includes an adjacent 24.8-acre parcel which is located
in the Town of Cortlandvilie. This smaller parcel did not
require any cleanup by EPA. The site is situated in a
commercial and residential area; the closest homes are

about 500 feet away. About 1,900 people live within a
half-mile of the site.

From 1974 until 2004, the Buckbee-Mears Company
(BMC) made aperture masks, a key component in color
television picture tubes and computer monitors, along
with other photochemical ly-etched metal products. After
BMC filed for bankruptcy, India-based International
Electron Devices-USA, LLC (IED) acquired the property
and manufacturing facility in 2004. IED resumed
making aperture masks for cathode ray tubes and sheet
metal components for picture tubes and computer
monitors. IED ceased operations and abandoned the
facility in 2005 due to financial challenges.

Large quantities of hazardous wastes were discovered
on site in 2006 after the Cortland Police Department
responded to a report of vandalism. Acids and other
chemicals were found stored in drums, tanks, process
piping, and small containers across the facility. The
police notified the New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). NYSDEC
confirmed the presence of numerous hazardous
substances, includingsulfuricacid, nitricacid, methanol,
chromium trioxide, ammonium hydroxide and chlorine
gas. NYSDEC requested that EPA conduct a short-term
cleanup, or time-critical removal action. The absence of
site security, disconnected utilities, flammable materials
and the potential for a release of hazardous substances
meant that a response action was necessary.

Project History

2006 - 2008

Establishing Roles and Responsibilities

EPA enforcement staff negotiated with IED, the
site's responsible party, and issued the company an
administrative order to perform and pay for the required
Superfund cleanup activities. IED initially complied
with the order, identifying a cleanup contractor and
putting site security in place. During a follow-up visit,
however, EPA found that the security firm was no longer
active and that contractors had stopped all cleanup
work due to a lack of payment from IED. Several EPA
attempts to contact the company were unsuccessful.
EPA informed IED that the Agency would commence

vvEPA

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Office of Site Remediation Enforcement

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Cleanup of a sulfuric acid tank at the site (above) and the
removal of chromic acid stored on the site (below).

Removal actions included demolishing structurally damaged
and contaminated buildings.

the necessary cleanup work at the site because of
lED's failure to comply with the administrative order.
Through a series of Action Memoranda, EPA authorized
removal cleanup activities at the site.

2007 - 2009

Protecting Public Health, Cleaning up the Site

EPA conducted a Superfund time-critical removal
action at the site. Activities included the sampling of
containers abandoned on site; removing and disposing
or recycling hazardous materials in bulk storage tanks;
draining, cutting, and removing 200,000 linear feet of
contaminated chemical feed lines; and removing potential
radiation sources in instrumentation units. Removal
actions also included disposing of mercury switches;
demolishing and disposing of structurally damaged and
contaminated buildings; salvaging or recycling metal
waste; and capping the concrete foundation slabs left
after building demolition.

Two buildings on site - a 30,000-square-foot warehouse
and an adjacent, 210,000-square-foot factory building

-	did not need to be demolished. In addition, the factory
building, Building #5, had a black mold problem that EPA
could not address under Superfund. Site infrastructure

-	an electric substation, a rail spur and a wastewater
treatment plant - also remained on site after cleanup.
EPA's removal action successfully addressed the risks
to pubiic health and the environment and allows for
commercial and industrial uses. EPA spent over $8
million on the cleanup and filed a Superfund lien on the
property to recover EPA cleanup costs.

2008-2012

Pursuing Innovative Settlement Agreements

After the unsuccessful effort to contact I ED, EPA,
the city, county, and the State Bank of India, as the
mortgage holder for the property, entered into settlement
discussions. The parties sought to resolve the several
competing liens on the property (the site and adjacent
parcel), enabling the potential reuse of the area in the
future. In addition to EPA's $S.3-miI lion Superfund lien,
the city and county had tax liens of $1.2 million and
the bank had a mortgage of $8.4 million. Over $17.6
million in iiens were filed against a property with an
assessed value of $2.1 million.

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CERCLA Liens

EPA uses two types of liens that may impact a
property at a Superfund site: federal liens for
response costs and windfall liens. A CERCLA § 107(1)
Superfund lien applies to properties owned or once
owned by potentially responsible parties (PRPs) and
entitles EPA to recover cleanup costs it has incurred.
A CERCLA § 107(r) windfall lien is a statutory lien on
a property for either the increase in the fair market
value of that property attributable to EPA's cleanup
efforts or unrecovered response costs, whichever is
less. Unlike a CERCLA § 107(1) lien, the windfall lien is
not a lien for all of EPA's unrecovered response costs.
The windfall lien applies to properties that are or may
be acquired by bona fide prospective purchasers
(BFPPs) as described in CERCLA § 101(40).

Site infrastructure that tPA left in place after cleanup included
an on-site rail spur.

EPA enforcement staff approached the State Bank of
India about a three-party administrative settlement
among the Agency, the bank and I ED. I ED never
responded to EPA and the bank pursued its own actions
against IED. In 2008, after meeting with the bank's
legal counsel and learning that iED no ionger had a
U.S. presence, EPA decided to negotiate solely with
the bank and began what turned into several years of
settlement negotiations. As IEPA enforcement staff
worked on finalizing settlement negotiations with the
bank, EPA also reached out to the city and county to
address their liens and facilitate the foreclosure, sale,
and redevelopment of the site.

EPA and the State Bank of India finalized an
administrative settlement agreement (Bank Agreement).
In brief, under its terms, the bank would foreclose on the
property and attempt to sell it at a foreclosure auction.
EPA and the two local taxing authorities (the City of
Cortland and Cortland County) would then lift their
respective liens on the property and the parties would
share property sale revenue after the auction. The Bank
of India received a covenant not to sue and contribution
protection from EPA for existing contamination at the
site.

EPA also entered into Memoranda of Agreements
(MOAs) with the city and county. Collectively referred
to as the "Municipal Settlements," they provided that
if the bank was not able to sell the property during
the foreclosure action, the city would have the right to
foreclose on and facilitate the sale of the property and
the bank would no longer be entitled to any proceeds
from the sale. If the city foreclosed, it would pay EPA 50
percent of the proceeds from the sale after the city and
county received up to $150,000 to cover transaction
costs.

To further support the site's redevelopment, EPA agreed
to release its Superfund lien and waive any post-sale
windfall lien as part of the settlement agreements.

2012

Clarifying Site Status and Reuse Opportunities

Knowing that comprehensive and clear documentation
of the site's cleanup and current status would be helpful
for any parties considering on-site redevelopment
projects, EPA funded a reuse analysis. It documented

vvEPA

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Office of Site Remediation Enforcement

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the site's status, clarified areas well suited for different
land uses, and provided recommendations on ways to
address remaining reuse challenges. Examples of these
challenges included residual contamination in soils
below concrete slabs, mold remediation requirements,
and renovation of the on-site rail spur and electrical
infrastructure.

The reuse analysis also fully delineated property
boundaries, summarized cleanup activities and
locations, and mapped all sitefeaturesand infrastructure
- from buildings to wetlands to monitoring welis - that
might present opportunities or limitations for future
development at the site. The reuse analysis became
part of the outreach materials used by the city, county
and local economic development organizations to
facilitate marketing efforts for the property.

2013 - 2014

Moving Forward with Bank Foreclosure and
Property Sale

The Bank of India obtained an order of foreclosure
and worked with a real estate company to market the
property for sale. The property sold at a foreclosure
auction to David Yaman, a local developer. The site now
had an engaged steward; an owner facilitating the safe
and beneficial reuse of the property.

Map summarizing removal action cleanup activities at the site,
created as part of an EPA-funded reuse analysis.

Area Revitalization Efforts

In 2013, the City of Cortland received a $359,500
Brownfield Opportunity Area (BOA) grant from
NYSDEC to investigate the redevelopment of former
industrial areas - including the former Buckbee-
Mears site - in the southeastern part of the city.

The BOA Program provides resources to New York
communities to establish revitalization strategies that
return dormant or blighted parcels to productive
use. The grant is funding preliminary analysis work
as a first step in the city potentially receiving a
BOA designation from NYSDEC, BOA designation
provides additional funding and tax credits to support
revitalization efforts across southeast Cortland,

The rear of Manufacturing Building #5 at the Buckbee-Mears site. (Source: David Yaman Realty Services)

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2014 - Present

Rehabilitating the Property, Marketing the Area
for Reuse

The developer spent nearly $800,000 rehabilitating
the property, including cleaning up mold contamination
that EPA was unable to address under Superfund. The
developer gutted and renovated two on-site buildings,
transforming a once-abandoned, neglected property into
a valuable economic asset for the community.

The eyesore that once prompted calls to the police and
required federal cleanup is now protective of public
health and ready for reuse. The property is now known
as the Cortland Industrial Center. The owner/developer
identified a tenant for the property in late 2016 and is
in the process of finalizing a long-term lease agreement.
Once a lease is finalized, Building #5 will be upgraded
and reconfigured to enable the new tenant to manufacture
industrial grade wood pellets.

Enforcement Makes a Difference

EPA's environmental enforcement program
has helped make a difference in thousands
of communities impacted by hazardous waste
contamination. At sites such as the Buckbee-Mears
site, the program played a central role in facilitating
the site's cleanup and reuse by bringing key
parties together to negotiate innovative settlement
agreements and resolve competing liens. From
cleanup to final settlement agreements, EPA's work
in Cortland, New York, has positioned the site to
advance economic development opportunities
throughout the community.

Scenes from the Cortland Industrial Center
(Source: David Yaman Reality Services)

For More Information, Contact:

Elisabeth Freed

freed .el isabeth@epa .gov
(202) 564-5117

vvEPA

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Office of Site Remediation Enforcement

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