St. Louis company to pay $3.6M in environmental cleanup costs

St. Louis Daily Record & St. Louis Countian, Jan 30, 2008 by Donna Walter

Three companies are paying the federal government close to $8 million for cleaning up an old industrial recycling site north of downtown St. Louis.

Solutia Inc. agreed this week to pay $3.6 million of that amount for remediation of the 11-acre plot near McKinley Bridge.

The Town & Country-based company is the last major party to settle with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for cleanup costs at 42 Ferry Road, where various companies cleaned oil drums for decades.

The Solutia settlement was filed Monday with the St. Louis-based federal court. On Jan. 16, the EPA settled its claims against Mallinckrodt Inc. and Shell Oil Co. Mallinckrodt agreed to pay the government $3.95 million; Shell agreed to pay $215,000.

"We think this is a fair result as to what the cleanup should have cost and Mallinckrodt's responsibility," said Joseph G. Nassif, one of the four Husch & Eppenberger attorneys who represented Mallinckrodt and Solutia.

The site was used as a drum-reclamation area starting in 1949. Mallinckrodt operated the site from 1970 to the mid-1970s, according to court records. Great Lakes Container Corp. then operated the facility until 1985, according to the EPA.

The federal agency named the land a Superfund site in 1996 and originally sought about $9.8 million from Solutia. The company was liable as a spin-off of Creve Coeur-based Monsanto, which sent oil drums to the site.

Throughout the case, Mallinckrodt objected to the EPA's division of liability. In a 2003 court filing, the company noted that it was only one of three former owners of the site but was being asked to pay the lion's share of the cleanup costs.

Shell's share of the settlement represents its liability for arranging for the disposal of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, on the property. PCBs, toxic compounds banned in the 1970s, had many industrial uses.

Shell agreed in May to pay $228,630 of the cost of cleaning up lead-related hazardous materials.

The January agreements wrap up the EPA's case against the three companies over the site.

U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber still must approve the settlements. The public has 30 days to comment before he may do so.

The settlement with Solutia is also subject to approval of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York. Solutia filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in the jurisdiction in December 2003.

The Mallinckrodt settlement requires that company to give the EPA access to documents relating to the site. The company may not withhold documents on the grounds that they are privileged, according to the settlement. The company may, however, redact confidential information.

The settlement also requires Mallinckrodt to retain all cleanup- related documents and records for five years.

The EPA filed suit against Mallinckrodt, Shell and Solutia in October 2002, seeking $9.1 in costs.

Mallinckrodt and Solutia filed claims against third parties to recoup part of their cleanup costs. The government and the two companies settled a majority of those claims.

Nassif said the companies still have a handful of third-party claims to pursue. Once the government's settlement is final, those companies will be approached and asked to contribute their share of the cleanup costs, he said.