In Brief : Toxic Case Costs Rockwell $47,500

Rockwell International, operator of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, has agreed to pay the Environmental Protection Agency $47,500 in what the federal agency said today was the first civil penalty assessed by EPA for environmental problems at Rocky Flats.

But Rockwell officials said the payment was not a civil penalty or a fine but was agreed to in order to avoid the costs of litigation.

“It does not set a precedent because we do reserve our right to contest any future actions the EPA might take,” said Rockwell spokesman Pat Etchart.

EPA said the payment represents Rockwell’s first admission of the agency’s jurisdiction at the plant.

The payment stems from two enforcement actions EPA brought against Rockwell in 1986 for alleged PCB, or polychlorinated biphenyl, contamination at the plant. EPA alleged that Rockwell violated the federal Toxic Substances Control Act by letting the hazardous PCBs leak from several pieces of equipment at the plant.