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EPA, DEP sue 17 companies for clean-up costs of Superfund site in Lawrence County
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The U.S. Department of Justice and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection today sued 17 companies in U.S. District Court in a step toward recovering a fraction of the cost of cleaning up a Superfund clean-up site in Lawrence County.
The site, in West Pittsburg, was run by Reactive Metals and Alloys Corp., or Remacor, and accepted magnesium shavings and scrap that was then turned into a reagent used in steel production.
A 2005 fire shut down the processing function of the plant, but it continued to take in magnesium waste, stockpiling 6 million pounds, according to the complaint.
Beginning in 2006, the DEP and the EPA removed the waste at a cost of about $10 million.
The 17 defendant companies provided magnesium waste to Remacor.
The complaint is expected to be followed shortly by the filing of a consent decree in which they will pay upwards of $1 million to the state and federal agencies to cover part of the cost of the clean-up.
First Published November 9, 2012 2:06 pm
