Opinion ID: 2277625
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: tybouts corner landfill

Text: The relevant facts in this appeal are not in dispute. The issue before the Superior Court and this Court is purely a legal one. Stauffer operated a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) manufacturing plant in Delaware City, Delaware between 1966 and 1981. The plant generated two principal wastes: (i) polyvinyl chloride resin and (ii) ethylene dichloride (EDC) sludge. [5] These wastes were disposed of at a municipal landfill located near the Stauffer facility in New Castle County Delaware at Tybouts Corner. The acts of disposal took place from 1969 until July of 1971 when the landfill reached its capacity and was closed. [6] By the time the landfill ceased operating, Stauffer had dumped some 4.2 million pounds of EDC sludge and approximately 26 million pounds of other industrial wastes at the Tybouts Corner site. The sludge was transported to the landfill in open 55-gallon drums and was poured directly into the ground. Pursuant to State permitting requirements, the County established a program for testing the hydrological characteristics of the surface and subsurface waters at the landfill. In February 1969 the University of Delaware was employed to monitor the quality of the groundwater at Tybouts Corner and to issue periodic reports to the State and County. Data collected by the University between July 1969 and June 1971 indicated that leachate from the landfill was percolating downward through the soil into an aquifer. Although the reports indicated a progressive deterioration of the groundwater, the level of pollution was not considered to be serious at that time. It was not until May 1976 that the State Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) informed the County that a private well near Tybouts Corner was contaminated and that the landfill was the probable source. By 1984 the site was ranked second on the EPA National Priorities List.