Five companies to pay $9M for superfund cleanup in New York

August 8, 2012
By Jeremy Carroll

Five companies, including Gillette Co. and Energizer Battery Manufacturing Inc. have agreed to conduct $9.3 million worth of cleanup at a superfund site in New York, the U.S. EPA announced.

In addition to Gillette and Energizer Battery, KeySpan Gas East Corp., Union Carbide Corp. and Spectrum Brands Inc. will pay for the clean up of the Mercury Refining superfund site in Guilderland, N.Y., located 12 miles west of Albany.

"This agreement allows EPA to finish the important work that began several years ago to clean up the site so that people and the environment are protected," said EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck in a statement. "The agreement also ensures that the parties responsible for the contamination at the site will also be held accountable for cleaning it up at their own expense, rather than at the expense of taxpayers."

The site was used by the Mercury Refining Company from the 1950s to 1998 to recover, refine and market products with mercury inside. Mercury contaminated the site in the soil and a nearby unnamed tributary to the Patroon Creek, the EPA said.

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