FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	ENR

THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1998                                                                                                                  DOJ (202) 514-2008

	                                                                                                                                                                 CT AG's OFFICE (860) 808-5324

	                                                                                                                                                                 U.S. ATTORNEY (203) 773-2108

	                                                                                                                                                                 EPA (617) 573-9627

	                                                                                                                                                                 TDD (202) 514-1888







UNITED STATES AND CONNECTICUT SECURE $32 MILLION SETTLEMENT


TO CLEAN UP OLD SOUTHINGTON LANDFILL SUPERFUND SITE








	WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The United States and the State of
Connecticut today reached a $32 million settlement with 268 parties
that will fund the clean up of a Connecticut Superfund site.  The
11 acre Old Southington Landfill, located southwest of Hartford,
operated from 1920 to 1967, and is now heavily contaminated with
solvents and metals.

	The settlement, lodged today in U.S. District Court in
Bridgeport, requires the Pratt and Whitney Division of United
Technologies Corporation and the Town of Southington to clean up
the site, while other parties make lump sum cash payments based on
the amount and type of waste they each sent to the site.  The
payments will be put toward the cost of the cleanup.  Under today's
settlement the United States will recover $11 million in cleanup
costs, will contribute up to $8.8 million toward the $20 milion
cleanup, and will give up its claims for an additional $4 million
in costs.  In addition, all the settling parties will pay a total
of $5 million to the Town and Pratt & Whitney to reimburse them for
study and clean up costs they incurred.  The Town owned and
operated the landfill where Pratt and Whitney, like most of the
other parties to today's settlement, disposed of waste.

	As part of the cleanup, the Town and Pratt will relocate the
businesses located on the landfill, cap the landfill, extract any
hazardous gases, and study contamination in the groundwater.  The
cleanup plan also calls for excavating and sealing off an area of
especially high contamination, known as a "hot spot."

	One problem faced by the parties is that there are a large
number of waste contributors at the site that have gone out of
business.  Under existing Superfund law, the remaining parties have
to pay for the entire cleanup.  "EPA is experimenting with
different ways to make the Superfund program fairer and faster,"
said Lois Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the
Environment and Natural Resources Division.  "Under this
settlement, the government will pay $13 million in cleanup costs to
help fill the gap left by defunct companies responsible for
contamination."

	The parties to the settlement will be relieved of their
liability to EPA, the State, Pratt and Whitney, G.E. and the Town. 
"It is very difficult for parties to settle their Superfund
liability at municipal landfills, especially at sites like this
one, where there are no records.  Waste contributors at such sites
often sue each other and they can be tied up in litigation for
years," said John DeVillars, Regional Administrator for EPA's New
England office in Boston.  "Because this settlement involves
virtually all of the parties at this site, we can now avoid
litigation and focus our efforts on expediting the cleanup."

	To reach this settlement, the parties and the governments
worked cooperatively, using mediators, to develop a method for
dividing up the cleanup costs among themselves.  "This settlement
will achieve cleanup in a way that is particularly helpful to the
business community, including many small Connecticut businesses,
because it will enable them to pay an equitable share of the
cleanup costs without significant impact to their businesses," said
John H. Durham, United States Attorney for the District of
Connecticut.  

	"This settlement is an excellent example of what can be
accomplished when EPA gets involved in resolving Superfund
liability through mediation," said Schiffer.

	268 out of a total of 271 responsible parties at the site,
including 265 industrial and commercial businesses and three
federal agencies, are participating in the settlement.  "Its
unusual to see this high a level of participation in a settlement
when you have so many parties.  We believe this is a result of the
parties' development of an equitable way to divide up the cleanup
costs and EPA's agreement to fund the defunct parties' shares,"
said EPA's DeVillars.  

	"We tried new ways to reach an agreement at the Old
Southington Landfill," said Steven A. Herman, EPA's Assistant
Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.  "Hard work
paid off here.  The parties reached a fair settlement that protects
the public and the environment, and EPA gained practical experience
to evaluate these new approaches for use at other Superfund sites."

	"More and more today, the success of environmental cleanups
hinges on the cooperation between the state and federal agencies,
local officials, the public and the responsible parties," said
Arthur J. Rocque, Jr., Connecticut's Department of Environmental
Protection Commissioner.  "Everybody involved in reaching this
settlement focused on the objective - cleaning up this site and
protecting human health and the environment.  This cleanup, and the
cooperation that developed to make it possible, serve as an example
of how Superfund can work."

	"This landmark settlement is the result of cooperation between
state and federal authorities, the Town and the business community
to clean up this site, and it sets an example for what can be
accomplished when all parties work together toward a constructive
solution," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. 
"It is an equitable settlement that lays the groundwork for the
remediation of this contaminated property."

	EPA is considering whether there is a need for a groundwater
cleanup at the Site.  At the same time, EPA is developing another
settlement that will enable most of the parties to put
responsibility for the groundwater cleanup at the Site behind them.

	The proposed settlement will published in the Federal Register
for a 30-day public comment period and is subject to court
approval.  

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