FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ENRD

FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2007 (202) 514-2007

WWW.USDOJ.GOV TDD (202) 514-1888

Hercules Inc. Pays $124 Million for

Superfund
Cleanup Costs Incurred by the U.S.
Government
WASHINGTON—The U.S. government received a $124 million payment today
from Hercules Incorporated to repay costs the EPA incurred in cleaning up the
Vertac Chemical and Jacksonville Landfill Superfund Sites in Jacksonville, Ark.,
the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced.

A judgment issued by Eastern District of Arkansas in 2005 found Hercules and

Chemtura Canada Co., formerly known as Uniroyal Chemical Ltd., liable for all
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability (CERCLA)
response action costs incurred by the EPA at the sites. Chemtura paid $3,068,974.76
to the United States on May 17, 2007, for a total payment by the two companies of
$127,561,245.76.

“After a trial and numerous court actions regarding this well-known site,” said
Matthew J. McKeown, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice
Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, “it is gratifying to be
able to have this considerable payment replenish the superfund where it can be used
to clean up other sites.”

“We’re very pleased with the Supreme Court’s recent decision which ended over 15
years of litigation concerning response costs incurred by EPA,” said EPA Regional
Administrator Richard E. Greene. “The court’s decision reaffirms our belief that
those responsible for contamination at a site should be held accountable for the
cleanup costs no matter how long it takes.”

The $124,492,271 payment, as well as the payment by Chemtura, was paid into the
EPA’s CERCLA Superfund. The U.S. Supreme Court’s denial of Hercules and
Chemtura’s petitions of certiorari and the subsequent payments conclude litigation
that began in 1980. The Superfund, created by Congress in 1980, is the federal
government's trust fund used to clean up the nation’s uncontrolled hazardous waste
sites.
Hercules manufactured millions of pounds of herbicides at the site including Agent
Orange, a 50/50 mixture of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, which was used by the U.S. military
as a defoliant during the Vietnam War. Nearly 10 years after dioxin was no longer
being made at the site, EPA found dioxin contamination and other hazardous wastes
throughout the plant site, including the soils, groundwater, plant equipment,
sediments of nearby waterways and the backyards of nearby residential areas.
Hercules was also found responsible for the costs of cleaning up a municipal landfill
used by Hercules as a dump site that also contained dioxin.

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