Wood Treatment Plant will Pay $8.6 Million to Clean Up Toxic Chemicals
By Laura Segnit
Published on September 02, 2005
The Environmental Protection Agency listed the location as a federal Superfund site in 1997. Superfund sites are the nation's highest priority contaminated waste sites.
Over the years, the EPA has spent more than $14 million to investigate and clean up contaminated areas at Oeser.
Under the settlement, the Oeser Co. will place money into trust accounts to pay for remaining cleanup and possibly reimburse the EPA for past expenses. Oeser will also contribute $500,000 towards cleanup of a local creek.
The Oeser site has been used for treating wood, including utility and transmission poles, since the 1940s. The company used the toxic chemical creosote for wood-treatment until the mid 1980s.
Currently, soil and groundwater around the Oeser site are contaminated with a variety of hazardous chemicals including creosote, pentachlorophenol (PCP), polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, and dioxin.
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