FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                   ENR
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1994                      DOJ           (202) 616-0189
                                               EPA (312) 353-6196
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888
                                     
                                     
        CONTAINER CORPORATION OF AMERICA WILL PAY $3.1 MILLION TO
        SETTLE MIAMI COUNTY, OHIO SUPERFUND SITE CLEANUP CLAIMS 

     WASHINGTON, D.C.--  The St. Louis-based Container
Corporation of America (CCA) has agreed to settle its potential
liability for the contamination of a Miami County Incinerator and
Landfill Superfund Site near Troy, Ohio, by paying $3.1 million
under a settlement agreement announced by the Department of
Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency today. 
     CCA rejected an opportunity in 1989 to join a settlement at
the Troy site involving 120 other parties that also disposed of
hazardous substances at the site, and will pay more as a result.
     "This settlement sends a clear message that polluters will
not get a better deal from the government by spurning EPA's early
settlement efforts," said Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney
General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the
Department of Justice.
     The United States alleged that CCA had arranged for the
disposal of hazardous substances at the Miami County Site during
the 1970s, when CCA owned and operated a container manufacturing 
plant in nearby Piqua, Ohio.
     CCA was invited to join the earlier settlement, which
provided for 120 other parties to contribute to the cleanup under
terms set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  CCA
attempted to join the settlement after the deadline had passed. 
EPA rejected the late offer, and the government then sued CCA for
EPA's response costs in connection with the Miami County Site.
     "We worked hard to reach an equitable settlement," said EPA
Deputy Regional Administrator Michelle Jordan.  "Such cooperation
can save potentially responsible parties lengthy litigation, and
as in this case, tremendous amounts of money."    
     The 65-acre facility is located north of Troy, near the
Great Miami River.  Miami County operated an incinerator and
landfill at the Site from 1968 to 1978.  EPA placed the Site on
the National Priorities List, a list of the nation's most
contaminated sites, in 1984 and selected a cleanup remedy for the
Site in 1989.  
     Today's settlement was submitted to the U.S. District Court
in Dayton.  
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95-026