Seymour Recycling: Superfund Site

Seymour Recycling Corporation Site Remediation:
A Successful Public-Private Partnership

Jeff Lorenzo was counsel for the City of Seymour, Indiana and negotiated the settlement and Consent Decree on its behalf. He was appointed the City’s Project Coordinator by Mayor William Bailey in December 1988 and continues in that capacity today.

The Seymour Recycling Corporation (“SRC”) remediation represents one of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) most successful early efforts at negotiating a settlement to a complex environmental clean-up case. The cost of remedial action, $26 million, is modest by today’s standards. But it represents one of the most expensive environmental cases of its time and was the first consent decree under the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (“SARA”), which amended the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”) on October 17, 1986. SARA reflected EPA's experience in administering the complex Superfund program during its first six years and made several important changes and additions to the program.

History --

Seymour Recycling Corporation, a subsidiary of Seymour Manufacturing Company, was created in 1970 for the recycling and disposal of industrial and hazardous waste. In 1978, the Indiana Stream Pollution Control Board, predecessor of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (“IDEM”), petitioned the Jackson County, Indiana Circuit Court, for an injunction to prevent the acquisition of additional hazardous material by the company. Judge Robert R. Brown (now a member of the Seymour law firm of Montgomery, Elsner & Pardieck, LLP) issued an order appointing a receiver for the company and effectively causing the cessation of its business operation. In 1980, the site was named a National Priority List (“NPL”) Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Between 1982 and 1984, EPA completed a major surface clean-up of over 60,000 (55 gallon) drums of hazardous waste, 98 storage tanks, and removal of the impacted soil. Clean fill was placed on the excavated area and was capped with a temporary clay cover. --

In August 1988, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, by Judge William Steckler, lodged a Consent Decree authorizing the comprehensive and final clean-up of the site. The Consent Decree embodies a settlement between EPA, the State of Indiana and the City of Seymour, Seymour Manufacturing Company, and the approximate 140 other companies and organizations for remedial action at the site. Within the Consent Decree are provisions for the final Remedial Action Plan (“RAP”) and for the creation of a trust fund to which contributions were made by various settling defendants to accomplish the clean-up. Monsanto Company agreed to be the Trustee to implement the provisions of the Consent Decree under the guidance of EPA, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the City of Seymour. The trust engaged ARCADIS Geraghty & Miller to be the prime contractor for this work. --

Seymour, Indiana is located 62 miles south of Indianapolis, 50 miles north of Louisville, and 88 miles west of Cincinnati.

Current Status

The trust assumed responsibility for implementation of the RAP on December 1, 1988. Key elements of the remedy and the status of the work are:

1. An extraction and treatment system to control the flow of, and clean, contaminated ground water in the shallow aquifer. Ground water was to be extracted for a minimum of 12 years and treated at a pre-treatment plant on site before being treated again at the City’s publicly owned treatment works. --Status: The mandated ground water extraction system duration was completed in September 2001.

More than 99% of the contaminants in the ground water have been removed. The system was shut down in October 2001. The process of natural attenuation is being utilized to continue the remedial work. A program of ground water quality sampling monitors the progress of the on-going clean-up. If required, the extraction and treatment system will resume operation. --

2. Facilities to reduce the amount of contamination in the soil on the site. --Status: Approximately 34,000 pounds of contaminants in the soil have been removed by a soil vapor extraction system. Contaminant removal through continuous operation of the system has reached a point of diminishing returns. The system now is operated on an intermittent basis to optimize the removal of the remaining contaminants. --

3. An impenetrable membrane (cover) over the 14 acre site to prevent rainwater from leaching contaminants in the soil. --Status: Installation of the cover was completed in 1990. Maintenance to insure integrity of the cover continues. --

4. Sealing and abandoning of inactive private water supply wells in the Snyde Acres subdivision, after obtaining property owner consent, and extension of the municipal water system to the area.--Status: Sealing and abandonment of the private wells in Snyde Acres was completed in 1989 and 1990. --

The construction and initial startup of the various facilities at the site was completed approximately two years ahead of schedule. All construction work and the operation of the facilities have been conducted with no impact on human health and the environment. The site continues to be monitored to ensure contamination levels are decreasing and continue to be protective of human health and the environment. The team effort by the USEPA, IDEM, the City of Seymour, and the Trust enabled this positive result to occur. --

Inquiries relating to the Seymour remedial action activity may be directed to:

City of Seymour, Indiana

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Jeffrey Lorenzo
Project Coordinator
Lorenzo Law Office
218 West Second Street
Seymour, IN 47274
Phone (812) 524-9000