Assistant Attorney General In Charge Of The California Environment Protection Agency

.usdoj.gov, Mar 29, 2005

The United States and the state of California today announced a settlement with Aventis CropSciences USA, Inc. that will fund cleanup costs that could approach $1 billion at the Iron Mountain Mine Superfund Site near Redding, Calif.

The settlement, filed by the Justice Department on behalf of the U.S. EPA, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Department of Commerce and several California agencies, is one of the largest settlements with a single private party in the history of the federal Superfund program. It is also one of the biggest environmental settlements for state environmental agencies.  

"This agreement is an important milestone in the history of Superfund," said Lois Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Environment Division at the Justice Department. "While we have reached thousands of agreements to clean up the country's most polluted sites under Superfund, today's accord truly stands apart."

The settlement will ensure long-term control of more than 95 percent of the pollution released from Iron Mountain, historically the largest point source of toxic metals in the United States, and the source of the most acidic mine drainage in the world. Prior to remediation, the mine discharged an average of a ton a day of toxic metals into the Upper Sacramento River, a critical salmon spawning habitat and a central feature in the state's water system.  

Aventis, formerly known as Rhone Poulenc, Inc., has arranged for The IT Group to operate and maintain the site cleanup over the next 30 years.  

The settlement creates a unique financial vehicle to assure that money is available each year for long-term clean up costs. Aventis will make its payment of about $80 million to purchase this funding vehicle, which fund will generate money that will be used over the next 30 years to pay the estimated $200 to $300 million for clean up. In addition, Aventis will pay an additional approximately $64 million now to fund a balloon payment at the end of the 30 years of approximately $514 million, which will be paid to the federal and state governments for future site costs.  

When the settlement is entered in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, Aventis will pay the U.S. EPA $8 million for future site costs and pay $10 million for resource restoration to the federal and state natural resource trustees: the Department of Interior on behalf of the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, and Fish and Wildlife Service; Department of Commerce on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and the California Department of Fish and Game. An additional $7.5 million will be contributed by California toward the settlement, with $1 million going to natural resource restoration, and the remainder to cleanup costs.  

As part of the settlement, Aventis will also waive any claim to be reimbursed for $150 million it has already spent to clean up the site.  

"This innovative settlement is good news for people, fish and animals from the northern headwaters of the Sacramento River all the way down to San Francisco Bay," said U.S. EPA Regional Administrator Felicia Marcus. "As recently as five years ago, this site dumped the equivalent of 150 tanker cars full of toxic metals into the Sacramento River each day during winter storms. Now, thanks to a true team effort on the part of myriad federal and state agencies, we have the funding and the resources in place to dramatically curtail the damage this site has imposed on our natural resources."  

"This agreement is an excellent example of government and the private sector working together to develop a solution to a serious environmental problem," said Winston Hickox, Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. "The environment and California taxpayers will both benefit - the Sacramento River will be less polluted and taxpayers will not have to foot the bill."  

"Controlling toxic releases from this massive hazardous waste site will allow salmon to once again migrate and spawn in the Sacramento River. Protecting and restoring chinook and steelhead salmon is an important priority for NOAA, and we are pleased to have worked with EPA to find a solution that restores habitat for these important fish species," said Craig O'Connor, Acting General Counsel for NOAA