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Results and Reports Annual Results Annual Results - FY2007 Superfund Enforcement 

Compliance and Enforcement Annual Results: 

FY2007 Superfund Enforcement 

The response and cost recovery commitments from private 

parties for fiscal year (FY) 2007 exemplify a robust 

enforcement program. The total number of settlements of 

Superfund enforcement actions increased from 276 in FY 2006 

to 314 in FY 2007. The number of settlements for site study 

and cleanup work increased from 102 in FY 2006 to 140 in FY 

2007. The number of settlements for cost recovery stayed the 

same at 174 in fiscal years 2006 and 2007. 

Many of the settlements reached with private parties in FY 

2007 involved large amounts of money. For example, EPA 

entered a final agreement with General Electric Company at 

the Hudson River PCBs Superfund site in Region 2 for past and 

future costs valued at $177 million. In addition, EPA achieved 

settlements for $99 million at Fort Ord in Region 9, and $30 million at the Fox River Site and 

$37 million at the Allied Paper site in Region 5. More information on the Superfund and other 

land case highlights is available at Land Highlights. 

EPA’s Superfund enforcement program achieves site cleanup and maximum liable party 

participation in performing and paying for cleanup in ways that promote environmental 

justice and fairness. Fiscal year 2007 activities and results include: 

Record Setting Cost Recovery Successes 

New tools to help 'Good Samaritans' remove mine waste, restore

watersheds, improve fisheries 

Requiring federal agencies to clean up contamination at their facilities 

Promoting redevelopment and reuse of contaminated sites 

Record Setting Cost Recovery Successes 

Once the Agency achieves cost recovery settlement commitments, EPA, with support from 

the Department of Justice, must ensure that these settlements are collected timely and in 

full. EPA had its best year ever in FY 2007 with cost recovery collections totaling over $336 

million. FY 2007 cost recovery settlement commitments totaled $252 million. Cost recovery 

collections over the life of the Superfund program total approximately $4.5 billion. More 

information on cost recovery is available on the Superfund enforcement cost recovery web 

page. 

Vertac Collection 

In FY 2007 the United States collected more than $127 million for costs incurred from 

cleanup in Region 6 of the Vertac Chemical (PDF) (4pp, 95KB, About PDF) and Jacksonville 

FY2007 Annual Results 

Topics 

FY2007 Home 

Press Release 

Results Charts 

Numbers at a Glance 

Enforcement Highlights 

Air Highlights 

Water Highlights 

Land Highlights 

Cross-Media Highlights 

Compliance Highlights 

Assistance 

Incentives 

Results by Region

Data, Planning and Results

Last updated on Friday, January 16th, 2009.

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Landfill (PDF) (4pp, 46KB, About PDF) sites in EPA’s largest Superfund enforcement 

judgment. 

On May 18, 2007, the United States collected more than $124 million from Hercules 

Incorporated in satisfaction of judgment for EPA response costs incurred in cleaning up the 

Vertac Chemical and Jacksonville Landfill Superfund Sites in Jacksonville, Arkansas. 

Chemtura Canada Co., formerly known as Uniroyal Chemical Ltd., paid more than $3 million 

to the United States on May 17, 2007, for a total collection from the two companies of more 

than $127 million, the largest Superfund enforcement judgment ever collected by EPA. The 

money was transferred to the Hazardous Waste Trust Fund. 

Dupont Impact on Cost Recovery 

EPA continues to work diligently with DOJ to recover past Superfund costs associated with 

EPA’s oversight of private party cleanup activities (“oversight costs”), which had previously 

been unrecoverable by EPA because of the 1993 ruling by the United States Court of Appeals 

for the Third Circuit (“Third Circuit”) in US v. Rohm & Haas Co., F.3d 1265 (3d Cir. 1993) 

(“Rohm & Haas”). The Rohm & Haas decision prevented EPA from recovering oversight costs 

from sites located in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

 Twelve years later, in United States v. DuPont, 432 F.3d 161 (3d Cir., 2005), the Third 

Circuit overruled its previous decision in Rohm & Haas to again allow EPA to recover 

oversight costs. 

As a result of the United States v. DuPont decision, EPA reopened a number of cases where 

the government had preserved its right to pursue oversight costs and in FY 2007 received, or 

parties committed to pay, over $5 million in past oversight costs. These funds will either be 

placed in the Hazardous Waste Trust Fund or in site-specific special accounts. 

New tools help 'Good Samaritans' remove mine waste, restore 

watersheds, improve fisheries 

In June 2007 EPA cleared legal roadblocks that discourage volunteers from cleaning up 

abandoned mine sites. The Agency issued new tools that will reduce legal uncertainties for 

public and private entities, or “Good Samaritans,” to clean up orphan hardrock mine sites 

responsible for degrading water quality throughout the western United States. 

Under the 2007 tools (PDF) (24pp, 162KB, About PDF), EPA and volunteer parties will now be 

able to enter into "Good Samaritan Settlement Agreements." These agreements provide key 

legal protections to Good Samaritans as non-liable parties, including a federal covenant not 

to sue under the Superfund law, and will provide protection from third-party contribution 

suits. The other tool is a model comfort letter (1pp, 16KB, About PDF) intended for Good 

Samaritan parties. More information is available on EPA’s Good Samaritan Web site. 

Requiring Federal Agencies to Clean Up Contamination at Their 

Facilities 

Under the federal Superfund law, EPA is responsible for overseeing cleanups done by federal 

agencies at federal facilities. EPA and federal agencies enter into agreements to guide 

cleanup federal facilities at their National Priorities List sites and to govern EPA’s oversight of 

those cleanups. 

Federal facilities continued to clean up their contaminated sites under enforceable 

agreements. Cleanup decisions for this year will address an estimated 55 million cubic yards 

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of contaminated soils and 293 million cubic yards of contaminated water. This accounts for 

25 percent of all clean up commitments by potentially responsible parties in FY 2007. 

Agreements Reached in 2007 

In 2007 EPA, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the Commonwealth of 

Puerto Rico signed an agreement for the cleanup of the Navy’s former Atlantic Fleet Weapons 

Training Area on the island of Vieques, off the east coast of Puerto Rico. 

At the Rocky Flats site near Denver, Colorado, EPA and the Department of Energy agreed on 

the long-term management of the former nuclear weapons site ensuring that its cleanup 

continues to protect human health and the environment. 

Enforcement Orders when Agreements Cannot be Reached 

EPA conducted extensive negotiations at several sites; however, the Agency could not reach 

cleanup agreements at some federal facilities, which resulted in the issuance of enforcement 

orders. The enforcement orders at the facilities identified below ensure that the federal 

agencies conduct the necessary cleanup work and protect public health and the environment. 

The U.S. Air Force and Raytheon to clean up the Tucson Airport Superfund Site (also 

known as the Air Force Plant 44 site) in Tucson, Arizona. 

The U.S. Air Force to investigate and clean up McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. 

The U.S. Army to assess the nature and extent of contamination at 14 waste sites at 

the Fort Meade base in Maryland and to implement appropriate cleanup actions. 

Promoting Redevelopment and Reuse of Contaminated Sites 

In FY 2007 OECA promoted not only the cleanup but also the redevelopment and reuse of 

contaminated sites by defining and addressing liability concerns and promoting the use of 

pilot projects and innovative settlements. 

Empire Canyon Launches ER3 Pilot Project 

On April 17, 2007, EPA Administrator Steve Johnson formally

announced the first project under the ER3 initiative where an 

enforcement incentive influenced a developer to minimize the 

environmental impacts of a planned redevelopment. 

The on-site event publicized the prospective lessee agreement that 

EPA and DOJ negotiated to address the lessee’s potential Superfund 

liability in exchange for a commitment to clean up the site and 

incorporate numerous environmentally friendly and sustainable 

elements into redevelopment of the site. More information on ER3. 

 

 

Redevelopment of Federal Facilities 

In 2007, EPA reached agreements with other federal agencies and private developers to 

clean up several large federal facilities and thereby return them to economically productive 

EPA Administrator 

Johnson speaking at 

Empire Canyon ER3 

event 

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reuse. These cleanups will turn former waste sites into productive, tax-producing properties 

improving the communities around them. 

EPA, the California Department of Toxic Substance Control, the United States Air 

Force, Sacramento County, and McClellan Business Park joined forces to create the 

first privatized cleanup of a federally owned Superfund site – McClellan Air Force Base 

– in the nation. 

EPA and the U.S. Navy reached agreement regarding the cleanup and redevelopment 

of the closed Roosevelt Roads base in Puerto Rico. 

Annual Results by Fiscal Year:

FY2008 | FY2007 | FY2006 | FY2005 | FY2004 | FY2003 | FY2002 | FY2001 | FY2000 | 

FY1999

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