Case Summary: $56.4 Million Cleanup Agreement for Malone Services Company Superfund Site

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reached agreement with over three dozen companies and government agencies that will result in a $56.4 million cleanup of the Malone Services Company Superfund Site in Texas City, Texas, and recovery of an additional $900,000 in cleanup costs owed to EPA.

The settlement was approved by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on September 24, 2012, and also resolves liability of the federal generators to the state, claims of the federal and state natural resource trustees, as well as state claims for response costs.

• Information about the Settling Parties
• Information about the Malone Services Company Superfund Site
• Pollutants and Environmental Effects
• Overview of the Settlement Agreement
• Contact

Information about the Settling Parties

The settling parties are divided into:

• 27 Principal Settling Defendants
• 5 Major Cashout Settling Defendants,
• 71 De Minimis Cashout Settling Defendants, and
• 8 Settling Federal Agencies.

EPA previously completed four rounds of administrative settlements with approximately 230 relatively small contributors of waste, or “de minimis” parties.

Information about the Malone Services Company Superfund Site

The Malone Service Company Superfund Site is located in Texas City, Texas, near the shore of Galveston Bay. The facility operated from 1964-1997 as a reclamation, storage, and disposal facility for waste oil and chemicals.

Industrial and waste disposal facilities are located outside the northwestern and western boundaries of the site. The southwestern, southern and southeastern boundaries of the facility border on marsh land. The entire facility is encircled by a 14-foot high flood control levee.

The northeastern portion of the Site (100 acres) was developed for the storage, processing and disposal of hazardous waste. The developed acreage contains numerous waste-handling areas, which include storage tanks, two API separators, a settling pond, a closed collection pond, and two deep subsurface injection wells. The northwestern portion of the site (undeveloped 50 acres) contains a storm water collection pond. More information about the Malone Service Company Superfund Site.

Pollutants and Environmental Effects

The principal contaminants of concern at the site are organic and inorganic chemical wastes in the form of liquids, sludges and solids.

Wastes received at the facility included: acids and caustics from industrial cleaning and surface preparations; contaminated residues and solvents removed from processing and storage units during cleaning operations; spent drilling fluids, including muds and brines from well workover and exploration activities; acids containing metals from etching and plating operations; inorganic slurries from sump cleaning; gasoline and crude oil tank bottoms; contaminated earth and water from chemical spill cleanup operations; general industrial plant wastes; phenolic tars; and, waste oils.

Overview of the Settlement Agreement

The 27 Principal Settling Defendants, all generators of site waste, will perform the cleanup activity and pay $900,000 to the EPA for past and future costs. Seventy-six entities, including the United States and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) are resolving their liability by paying cash to the group of 27. The United States, which shipped 1.62 percent of the waste, will pay $1,490,029. TCEQ, which shipped 0.00545 percent of the waste, will contribute $6,766.

EPA collected approximately $ 8.4 million during four previous rounds of de minimis settlements. EPA will make at least $4.5 million from these and other recoveries available to the group of 27 companies carrying out the cleanup.

Contact

For more information contact:

Kevin Shade
Superfund Enforcement Officer
USEPA Region 6
214-665-2708
shade.kevin@epa.gov

Anne Foster
Assistant Regional Counsel
USEPA Region 6
214-665-2182
foster.anne@epa.gov

I-Jung Chiang
Assistant Regional Counsel
USEPA Region 6
214-665-2160
chiang.i-jung@epa.gov

Region 6 address:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Region 6
1445 Ross Avenue
Dallas, TX 75202-2733