Settlement for Cleanup of Phoenix-Goodyear Airport North Superfund Site

The United States and Unidynamics/Phoenix, Inc. and its parent company, Crane Co., reached a settlement requiring the private parties to remediate soil and groundwater contamination at the Phoenix-Goodyear Airport North Superfund Site. Under the terms of the settlement, Crane Co. and others will pay over $8 million to the United States to reimburse EPA for past and future clean costs and to settle claims for penalties and damages for the private parties’ failure to comply with 2 EPA administrative orders.

The settlement also requires the companies to spend $1 million on supplemental environmental projects to benefit the citizens of the City of Goodyear. According to the agreement, the parties will contract with the City of Goodyear to spend $1 million to inventory and preliminarily assess up to 25 possible “Brownfields” sites, to determine if these areas can be returned to productive use by redevelopment. Once the initial assessments are finished, Goodyear will select 4 sites for which it will conduct detailed site assessments, and ultimately conduct cleanup and redevelopment at 3 of those sites. It is hoped that the City’s Brownfields inventory and assessment will generate interest in others in the community to redevelop the properties not selected for the City’s program. The City’s Brownfields efforts will be completed in the next 3 years.

The settlement is currently undergoing public review and comment. The settlement will become final upon the approval of Judge Roslyn O. Silver of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.

THE FOREGOING IS MERELY A PARTIAL SUMMARY OF THE CASE
AND IS NOT INTENDED TO BE RELIED UPON AS A LEGAL OPINION.