(ENS) – A former hazardous waste disposal site adjacent to wetlands on the shore of Galveston Bay will be subject to a $56.4 million cleanup under a settlement agreement announced today by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The settlement, which is subject to court approval, requires a group of 27 companies to clean up the Malone Services Company Superfund Site in Texas City, Texas. The companies must pay EPA $900,000 towards past and future costs, and reimburse the state of Texas for $796,726 in past costs.
Among the companies doing the cleanup work are BP Products North America Inc., Pharmacia (formerly Monsanto), Marathon Oil Company, Exxon Mobil Corporation and BASF Corporation.
"Cleanup under today's settlement will address the threat from more than a quarter of a million cubic yards of contamination left behind by the site operators in tanks and in a large unlined earthen basin," said Robert Dreher, principal deputy assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division.
"Through this agreement," said Dreher, "the parties have avoided costly and time-consuming litigation and expedited a cleanup that will protect the health and safety of citizens of Texas City and the coastal environment along Swan Lake."
Texas City is a busy deepwater port on Texas' Gulf Coast, as well as a petroleum refining and petrochemical manufacturing center.
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