Three companies to pay $29.8 million for superfund cleanup

August 21, 2012
By Jeremy Carroll

Courtesy, U.S. EPA Some coal-tar-derived wastes were excavated from a superfund site in Fairmont, W.Va., already, and more work is expected.

ExxonMobil Corp., CBS Corp. and Vertellus Specialties Inc. agreed to pay about $29.8 million in cleanup costs associated with a superfund site in Fairmont, W.Va., the U.S. EPA announced.

The three companies will reimburse the EPA and West Virginia $11 million for past cleanup at the Big John's Salvage-Hoult Road superfund site and do an estimated of $17.8 million worth of cleanup on the site. They will also pay an additional $1 million for future costs, the EPA said.

The 38-acre site became contaminated with hazardous wastes from decades of industrial activity, the EPA said. A company that later became Vertellus Specialties Inc. operated the site from 1932 to 1973 for tar processing. A predecessor to ExxonMobil operated a plant located adjacent to the tar processing site. A predecessor to CBS Corp. sent mercury-containing fluorescent light bulbs, lead dust and mercury-tainted waste oil to the site.

Among the cleanup needed at the site is the construction of a cap to contain contaminated soil along with enhancing an existing ground water containment system. Approximately 5,500 cubic yards of tar wastes on the bottom of a nearby river will be removed and sent to a certified disposal facility.

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