Firm to Clean Up Polluted Water at Superfund Site

A company that contaminated San Gabriel Valley groundwater with its metal cleaning and degreasing procedures has agreed to spend $27.8 million on environmental projects and penalties in a Superfund settlement reached with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, officials said Monday.

Carrier Corp., which manufactures air-conditioning and heating units, and its parent company, United Technologies Inc., will spend about $26.5 million to build a groundwater cleanup system, including wells to pump out contaminated water and prevent its migration.

They also will build a treatment plant, or series of treatment plants, to remove contaminants from the groundwater, EPA officials said.

The firms also will spend $468,750 on an environmental project at a former duck farm that overlaps the contamination area.

The terms of the consent decree lodged Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles also called for the companies to reimburse the EPA for the $800,000 it had spent on costs and to pay a $125,000 civil penalty for failing to comply with an EPA cleanup order.

“This settlement requires the cleanup of the shallow groundwater at the Puente Valley Operable Unit Superfund Site, which is an important step toward restoring this valuable drinking water source,” said Keith Takata, director of the regional Superfund program office. “The supplemental environmental project will benefit the area’s families and wildlife.”

A telephone call made after business hours to Hartford, Conn.-based United Technologies was not immediately returned.

The duck farm was bought by the Trust for Public Land in 2001 and sold in 2004 to the Watershed Conservation Authority. The authority works to improve open space for conservation and restoration in the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles rivers watershed area.

The EPA listed several sections of the San Gabriel Valley as Superfund sites in 1984.

The contaminated groundwater associated with all of the San Gabriel Valley cites lies under major portions of Alhambra, Irwindale, La Puente, Rosemead, Azusa, El Monte, West Covina and other areas.

Forty-five water suppliers use the San Gabriel Basin groundwater aquifer to provide 90% of the drinking water for more than 1 million people.

A dozen firms in 2003 agreed to reimburse the federal government for cleaning up contaminated groundwater under the same Superfund site.