HUD & Houston Housing Authority Settle Allegation of Discrimination for Refusing Deaf Resident's Request for Interpreter

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has reached an agreement with the Houston Housing Authority over allegations that the agency refused a deaf resident’s requests for a sign language interpreter. The resident needed an interpreter present at a hearing to determine her eligibility to remain in HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Fair Housing Act prohibit discrimination against persons with disabilities.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012                                                         
WWW.JUSTICE.GOV        

U.S. AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS ACHIEVE $50 MILLION SETTLEMENT TO ADDRESS CONTAMINATION AT SUPERFUND SITE IN RIALTO, CALIF.

WASHINGTON – The United States has entered into two settlements worth more than $50 million to clean up contamination from the B.F. Goodrich Superfund Site in San Bernardino County. There are a dozen settling parties including Emhart Industries (Emhart), and Pyro Spectaculars, Inc. (PSI), as well as the Cities of Rialto and Colton and County of San Bernardino, Calif.

The Superfund site has been used to store, test and manufacture fireworks, munitions, rocket motors, and pyrotechnics and was added to the EPA’s National Priorities List in September 2009. The area’s groundwater is contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchlorate, which have resulted in the closure of public drinking water supply wells in the communities of Rialto and Colton.           

“After decades of harmful groundwater contamination and following protracted and costly litigation, the parties responsible for releases of TCE and perchlorate at the BF Goodrich Superfund Site have agreed to a comprehensive long-term plan to cleanup the contaminated groundwater at the Site,” said Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. “The commitment made under the consent decrees announced today will provide immeasurable benefits to the environment and the communities who live in Rialto and Colton, California.”

“For decades, the defendants have been polluting this critical source of drinking water with both perchlorate and industrial solvents,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “Today's historic settlement ensures that the impacted communities in Southern California will finally have their drinking water sources restored.”

Under one agreement, Emhart will perform the first portion of the cleanup, which is estimated to cost $43 million over the next 30 years to design, build, and operate groundwater wells, treatment systems, and other equipment needed to clean up the contaminated groundwater at the site. A significant portion of these funds will come from other settling parties, including the Department of Defense. The Cities of Rialto and Colton will receive $8 million.

The Emhart settlement includes the following entities:   Emhart Industries, Inc., Black & Decker Inc, American Promotional Events, Inc., the Department of Defense, the Ensign-Bickford Company, Raytheon, Whittaker Corporation, Broco, Inc., and J. S. Brower & Associates, Inc. and related companies, as well as the Cities of Rialto and Colton and the County of San Bernardino.

As part of the second agreement, six entities, including PSI and its former subsidiary, will pay a combined $4.3 million to the EPA toward cleanup at the site and $1.3 million to the cities of Rialto and Colton and San Bernardino County. The entities involved in this settlement are Pyro Spectaculars Inc (PSI); Astro Pyrotechnics (a defunct subsidiary of PSI); Trojan Fireworks; Thomas O. Peters and related trusts; and Stonehurst Site, LLC.

EPA used government funds to pay for investigation and cleanup work at the site while investigating potentially responsible parties for their role in the contamination. The United States, on behalf of EPA, sued Emhart and PSI, as well as the Goodrich Corporation, the estate of Harry Hescox and its representative, Wong Chung Ming, Ken Thompson, Inc., and Rialto Concrete Products, in 2010 and 2011 to require cleanup and recover federal money spent at the site. Prior to EPA’s lawsuit, the cities of Rialto and Colton initiated litigation against many of the settling parties, including the Department of Defense, in 2004.

A company acquired by Emhart manufactured flares and other pyrotechnics at the Site for the military in the 1950s. PSI has operated at the Site since 1979, designing fireworks shows produced throughout the United States.

TCE is an industrial cleaning solvent. Drinking or breathing high levels may cause damage to the nervous system, liver and lungs. Perchlorate is an ingredient in many flares and fireworks, and in rocket propellant, and may disrupt the thyroid’s ability to produce hormones needed for normal growth and development.

The consent decree for the Emhart settlement ("City of Colton v. American Promotional Events, Inc., et al.") will be lodged with the federal district court by the U.S. Department of Justice and is subject to a comment period and final court approval. A copy of the Emhart decree is available on the Justice Department website at: www.justice.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html . The PSI settlement is also subject to court approval.

For more information on the B.F. Goodrich Site, please visit: www.epa.gov/region09/bfgoodrich

EPA will remove 1100 tons of perchlorate-contaminated soil in Barstow, CA

LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week will begin excavating areas of perchlorate-contaminated soil on and around a residential property on Poplar Street in Barstow, CA. The residence had been occupied by the former owner of Mojave Pyrotechnics, Inc., a defunct pyrotechnics manufacturing company that operated in the 1980’s.

EPA will remove approximately 1100 tons of contaminated soil, down three feet into the ground—the equivalent of 50 truckloads. The soil will be disposed of at the U.S. Ecology landfill. The excavated areas will be capped with a layer of plastic and then backfilled with clean soil. Removal action will begin today and may take up to three weeks to complete.

EPA has collected a total of 340 soil samples from 70 locations to determine the areas of contamination.   Data from these samples shows two areas, the garden and trash pile areas, within the northwestern parcel of the site with perchlorate levels in the soil that exceed the EPA’s Regional Screening Levels of 55 mg/kg. Because these areas with elevated levels are readily accessible to on-site residents, future workers and the casual trespasser and are a potential source of further groundwater contamination, the agency determined that the contaminated soil needed to be removed to ensure the protection of public health.

The EPA is working closely with the Regional Water Quality Control Board on its work in Barstow. The Water Board is the lead agency on the ongoing groundwater investigation associated with this site that began in 2010.

For more information on this site, please visit www.epaosc.org/MRPS

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 28, 2012


 

BP Temporarily Suspended from New Contracts with the Federal Government

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced that it has temporarily suspended BP Exploration and Production, Inc., BP PLC and named affiliated companies (BP) from new contracts with the federal government. EPA is taking this action due to BP’s lack of business integrity as demonstrated by the company's conduct with regard to the Deepwater Horizon blowout, explosion, oil spill, and response, as reflected by the filing of a criminal information. On November 15, 2012, BP agreed to plead guilty to eleven counts of Misconduct or Neglect of Ship Officers, one count of Obstruction of Congress, one misdemeanor count of a violation of the Clean Water Act, and one misdemeanor count of a violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, all arising from its conduct leading to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 people and caused the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history.

For the Deepwater Horizon investigation, EPA was designated as the lead agency for suspension and debarment actions. Federal executive branch agencies take these actions to ensure the integrity of Federal programs by conducting business only with responsible individuals or companies. Suspensions are a standard practice when a responsibility question is raised by action in a criminal case.

The BP suspension will temporarily prevent the company and the named affiliates from getting new federal government contracts, grants or other covered transactions until the company can provide sufficient evidence to EPA demonstrating that it meets Federal business standards. The suspension does not affect existing agreements BP may have with the government.

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