158 Companies Agree to Spend $19 Million for Waste Cleanup

Nearly 160 companies agreed Thursday to spend $19 million on hazardous waste cleanup in one of the largest settlements of its kind negotiated by the government.

At the same time, the Justice Department, saying three federal agencies likely made use of the Hamilton, Ohio, facility that created the hazardous waste problem, agreed to contribute $74,000 to the cleanup effort.

The settlement was contained in a consent decree entered in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati by 158 firms, including some of the nation’s largest chemical manufacturers, the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The decree will become final after a 30-day public comment period.

‘Turning Point for Victims’

Ohio Gov. Richard F. Celeste told reporters the settlement is “the very best cleanup to be negotiated under the federal Superfund law. It marks a turning point for the victims . . . who have had to live for years with the worst toxic dump in Ohio and one of the worst in the nation.”

Under provisions of the decree, negotiated by the firms with EPA and the Justice Department’s Land and Natural Resources Division, 158 companies that had wastes handled by the Hamilton facility will reimburse the federal government $4 million for surface cleanup costs.

They also will pay the state of Ohio $3 million for natural resources damage caused by the hazardous waste site.

The bulk of the $19 million settlement represents the estimated cost of a 10-year program of cleanup operations at the site, which was operated until 1980 by Chem-Dyne Corp., which has gone out of business.

The firms also will be required “to perform extensive cleanup of chemical contamination of ground water and other work,” said Assistant Atty. Gen. F. Henry Habicht II, who heads the Land and Natural Resources Division.