Shell to spend US$55mn to clean former rubber plant

ShellThe US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reached a US$55 million settlement with Shell Oil Company and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) for the cleanup of contaminated soil at the Del Amo Superfund Site in Los Angeles, Calif. The cleanup work will prevent surface exposure of industrial chemicals and reduce sources of groundwater contamination from across the 280-acre site.

The Del Amo facility was the site of a synthetic rubber manufacturing plant that was built in the 1940s and ceased operations in 1972. Benzene, propane, butylene and butane, used to produce synthetic rubber were disposed in unlined pits and ponds and covered with soil, resulting in contamination of soil and groundwater.

The Del Amo Superfund Site was placed on the EPA’s National Priorities List in 2002. GSA is the successor to the plant’s former federal government owners, the Defense Plant Corporation and Rubber Reserve Company. Shell was a former operator and eventual owner of the plant.

Part of the cleanup will involve injecting chemicals into the ground in three locations to accelerate the breakdown of the contamination deep within the soil. In addition, a vacuum system will extract and filter harmful vapors trapped within the soil. These treatment techniques are estimated to take 3 to 5 years to complete.

“These funds are key to advancing our cleanup actions at this site,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “EPA looks forward to working with local residents as we clean up and revitalize their neighborhood, which has been burdened for decades by this former industrial plant.”

The settlement, in the form of a consent decree, provides funding for the cleanup program and payment of EPA’s and the State of California’s oversight costs. The settlement claim was brought by the US Department of Justice on behalf of EPA, and the State of California also brought a claim on behalf of the Department of Toxic Substances Control.