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. ### 95-026