Du Pont Agrees to Pay for Environmental Damage

Du Pont Co. will pay $39 million to clean up ditches, lagoons and other ground water sites contaminated by hazardous waste that seeped from its Chamber Works plant here, a company official said Tuesday.

The cleanup is part of an administrative consent order with the state Department of Environmental Protection and represents the largest settlement by a single company for one location to date in the United States, said Commissioner Richard T. Dewling.

The company will construct a 2 1/2-mile pipeline that will transport waste water from the plant to Du Pont’s on-site water treatment plant, said Stuart Schenk, assistant plant manager. Construction is expected to be completed in 1991.