Posted on August 2, 2016
By Taylor Cooper, The Brunswick News
The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a press release Friday afternoon that Honeywell and Georgia Power Company have agreed to cleanup the 760-acre area of marsh at the LCP Chemicals superfund site.
The two companies have agreed in a settlement to spend $28.6 million on a project to remove and isolate contaminated sediments in the marsh and to monitor the long-term effectiveness of their efforts.
“We appreciate that these companies have stepped forward to remedy the contamination to which they and others have contributed,” Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden, with the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in the press release. “This settlement makes critical progress toward the remediation of the LCP Chemicals superfund site and will minimize risks to people and the environment posed by contamination in the marsh.”
Prashant Gupta, Honeywell’s remediation manager, told the Glynn County Commission in a work session in June that remediation work would be complete by 2019. Gupta also said Honeywell and Georgia Power would continue to monitor the site along with the EPA well into the future to ensure the effectiveness of their work.
The cleanup work required by the settlement includes dredging and installing protective caps on portions of four tidal creeks, placing a layer of clean sediment on eleven acres of marsh and restoring areas disturbed by construction. The work is expected to reduce concentrations of mercury, PCBs, lead and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the marsh’s sediments, according to the press release.
Additionally, capping the contaminants in place will prevent them from moving throughout the marsh and contaminating its animal life, according to the EPA.
The EPA and potentially responsible parties, including Honeywell International Inc. and Georgia Power Company, began response work at the site in 1994. Since then, the EPA has overseen the demolition of contaminated buildings, the dredging and excavation of 13 acres of marsh and the removal of contaminated soil and waste from the site’s upland areas, the EPA said in the press release.
Between 1919 and 1994, the LCP Chemicals site hosted a petroleum refinery, an electric power generation facility and various manufacturing operations, including a mercury cell chlor-alkali plant. These industrial activities led to widespread contamination of the site’s soil, groundwater, surface water and sediment, according to the press release. The site was placed on the federal superfund environmental cleanup list in 1996.
The public has the opportunity to submit written comments on the consent decree, which is subject to the 30-day comment period and final approval by the court. A copy of the consent decree is available at www.justice.gov/enrd/consent-decrees. The Justice Department also concurrently filed a complaint initiating the case that the consent decree resolves.
Source: The Brunswick News
