Columbia, Md.,-based W.R. Grace & Co. under its bankruptcy plan of reorganization, paid over $63 million to the US government to resolve claims for environmental cleanups at approximately 39 sites in 21 states, the US Department of Justice and the EPA announced today.
W.R. Grace, a global supplier of specialty chemicals, and 61 affiliated companies filed for bankruptcy in April 2001. In 2003, EPA filed claims against the company to recover past and future cleanup costs at sites contaminated by asbestos and other hazardous substances.
The company’s payment includes approximately $54 million for the EPA. The company agreed to pay another $9 million to other federal agencies, including the US Department of Interior and the US Army.
Numerous agreements to resolve the EPA’s environmental liability claims against the company and its affiliates were negotiated as part of the company’s bankruptcy proceedings between April 2008 and February 2013. The company continues to be responsible for all of the sites it owns or operates and for any additional sites that were not known or resolved under the earlier settlements.
W.R. Grace’s liability for asbestos contamination in the town of Libby, Montana, was addressed in a separate June 2008 settlement that resulted in a payment of $250 million to the EPA. W.R. Grace continues to be responsible for addressing cleanup at the Libby Mine.
The approximately $54 million payment to EPA will reimburse the Agency for cleanup costs or provide funds for future cleanup at the following Superfund sites:
In July, the EPA reached settlement agreements with ACF Industries and Carter Building Incorporated that allowed it to begin the $30 million cleanup of the Carter Carburetor Superfund Site in North St. Louis, Mo. Investigators have found unacceptable levels of asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls and trichloroethylene at the site, a 10-acre former gasoline and diesel carburetor manufacturing plant that operated from 1915 until 1984.
