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DEP Announces $2.5 Million Penalty In Ivy Industrial Park Water Contamination Case
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The Department of Environmental Protection this week announced agreements with Bostik Inc. and Sandvik Inc., two companies determined to be responsible for contaminating groundwater in four Lackawanna County municipalities.
The settlement includes agreements to construct a water line to serve affected residents, civil penalties totaling $2.5 million and recovery of past and future DEP costs.
DEP is making the settlement documents available for public review; the 60-day comment period begins June 4.
A public meeting where department staff will discuss the case and the settlement will be held at the Lakeland High School auditorium on July 13, at 6:30 p.m.
The consent order and agreement with Bostik and Sandvik requires the companies to construct a replacement water supply for the more than 200 residents affected by groundwater contaminated by the volatile organic chemicals, TCE and PCE. The chemicals were traced back to the companies’ facilities in the Ivy Industrial Park in Scott and South Abington townships.
DEP staff started investigating groundwater contamination at the industrial park in August 2005. The department required three companies there to conduct expanded sampling outside the park borders and to provide and maintain carbon treatment units to private well owners with elevated levels of TCE or PCE.
DEP, along with the Environmental Protection Agency, conducted extensive sampling and monitoring of soils, surface water and groundwater in and around the industrial park and in areas up to two miles away from the park in each direction.
That investigation, which included sampling more than 500 private wells, determined that levels of TCE and PCE from Bostik and Sandvik had impacted groundwater in parts of Scott, Abington, North Abington and South Abington townships.
DEP hosted a series of public meetings in the affected area and has routinely updated federal, state and local elected officials on the investigation’s progress as well as the status of ongoing settlement discussions.
“Residents will be best served by connecting to a new public water source as a permanent remedy rather than depending on maintaining in-house carbon treatment units.” DEP Northeast Regional Director Michael Bedrin said.
DEP has worked closely with Pennsylvania American Water Co. to develop the initial design of a large-scale waterline project in the investigated area. There are approximately 500 homes in that area, including 218 homes with carbon treatment units. All 500 of these homes are eligible to connect to the new water supply.
Home owners who connect to the system would need to abandon their existing wells to eliminate the effects of the contamination continuing to migrate in the geology of the area.
The project includes a new groundwater source, located outside the affected area, and more than 21 miles of water mains and infrastructure at an estimated cost of $20 million, which Bostik and Sandvik will pay.
The companies will continue to conduct quarterly sampling of another 300 wells in the four-township affected area and will reimburse DEP $1.7 million for its investigatory costs through June 2010, along with all future costs related to the site.
The consent order and agreement and the consent assessment of civil penalty are available for review at DEP’s Northeast Regional Office in Wilkes-Barre by calling 570-826-5472 to make an appointment.
The documents are also available at the municipal buildings in Scott, Abington, North Abington and South Abington townships.
Copies of the Bostick and Sandvik Consent Agreement, the Bostick Penalty Assessment and the Sandvik Penalty Assessment are available online.
Comments on the documents may be submitted in writing to Jeremy Miller, DEP Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program, 2 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701.
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6/6/2011 |
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