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Per today’s agreement, lodged today in the U.S. District Court for the District of
Delaware, DuPont and Ciba will purchase an “environmental covenant,” allowing
them to set aside for protection 56 acres of private land, known as the Pike Property,
located along the Delaware Bay, for restoration projects identified in the federal and
state agencies’ Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan (DARP). Dupont and
Ciba will pay costs associated with implementation of the restoration projects in the
DARP; pay Damage Assessment Costs incurred by the Trustees; and pay a damage
claim to Delaware for injury caused to groundwater.
“By working cooperatively, the agencies and DuPont quickly reached agreement on
an innovative restoration strategy that will ensure protection of natural resources in
perpetuity through the use of conservation easements,” said John H. Dunnigan,
assistant administrator for NOAA’s National Ocean Service. “We are satisfied that a
cooperative natural resource injury assessment and restoration approach benefits
industry, the community, and most importantly, the environment.”
“The highlight of this process was the cooperative nature of the negotiations,”
according to Marvin E. Moriarty, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast regional
director. “Both the Trustees and DuPont worked toward a common restoration goal,
and Dupont deserves credit for going beyond the basic requirements to the benefit
of our natural resources.”
For the past 100 years, the DuPont Newport Superfund Site has been used in various
chemical manufacturing operations. The site is the location of a paint pigment plant
and two inactive industrial landfills. In the late 1970s, DuPont built a second facility
at the Newport Site in order to expand its chromium dioxide production, and in
1984, DuPont sold part of the Newport facility to Ciba, which continues to produce
QA pigment at the Newport facility. As a result of its history of manufacturing
operations, the site became heavily contaminated with various hazardous
substances, including heavy metals (particularly arsenic, barium, cadmium, lead and
zinc) and volatile organic compounds.
For several years starting in the late 1980s, DuPont worked under orders issued by
the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the Newport site by doing such
things as excavating contaminated soils; capping landfills; restoring wetlands;
recovering and treating ground water; excavating and consolidating contaminated
soils, dredging and monitoring the Christina River; installing a groundwater barrier
wall along the north bank of the Christina River; and paving sections within the
contaminated plant areas.
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