EPA v. MAC Products, Inc.

Case summary

The Respondent operates a manufacturing facility in Kearny, NJ. TCE, a hazardous substance, was found in the air of a building at the facility at a concentration that exceeds EPA's health-based screening criteria. Such a concentration may adversely affect health of certain workers employed in the facility. At EPA's request, the Respondent entered into a Settlement Agreement under which it will install a vapor mitigation system to alleviate the elevated concentration of TCE and any other VOCs found to exceed the screening criteria. On April 20, 2021, EPA Region 2 entered into an Amendment to the Administrative Settlement Agreement and Order on Consent under CERCLA. Pursuant to the original Settlement Agreement, the Respondent has been performing a removal action to address indoor air contamination and has, among other things, installed sub-slab depressurization systems (SDSs) and performed years of indoor air sampling and monitoring. Although the Respondent has achieved significant improvements in contaminant levels, it has not been able to achieve indoor air concentrations below levels set by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) for all contaminants, as required by the original Settlement Agreement. The Amendment allows the Respondent to meet either NJDEP levels or the federal site-specific risk management levels (RMLs), which EPA determined are appropriate for the current commercial use of the facility. Because the sampling data indicate that the levels of indoor air contaminants have stabilized and are below EPA�s site-specific RMLs, the Amendment allows the Respondent to complete its remaining obligations under the Settlement Agreement of submitting final reporting and paying EPA�s unreimbursed response costs, after which the remainder of the cleanup (including source identification and remediation, and continued operation of the SDSs) will be done by the Respondent under NJDEP�s oversight.

Defendants (1)

• MAC Products, Inc.Named in settlement

Facilities (1)

• STANDARD CHLORINE JACOBUS AVENUE

  107-113 JACOBUS AVENUE, KEARNY, NJ, 07032-4512

  Registry ID: 110046353272

Statutes cited

• CERCLA 107A — Cost Recovery
• CERCLA 122H — Administrative Cost Recovery Settlement
• CERCLA 106A — Imminent & Substantial Endangerment Order

Enforcement conclusions (2)

• MAC Products, Inc.entered 2021-04-20

  Primary law: CERCLA

• MAC Products, Inc.entered 2014-08-14

  Primary law: CERCLA

Timeline (2 milestones)

• 2014-09-29Enforcement Action Data Entered
• 2021-04-20Final Order Issued