EPA Reaches Settlement in Clean-Up of Former Moon Industrial Site

Allegheny Ludlum Stainless Steel will reimburse the federal government for $535,000 in clean-up costs at the Breslube-Penn Superfund site in Moon Township, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. 

Allegheny Ludlum is the last of 158 parties to reach a settlement with the EPA regarding the ongoing clean up of the former Ewing Road industrial site.

The five-acre site was added to the EPA's list of hazardous superfund sites in 1996, after it was found that past industrial activities in the area could impact soil and groundwater.

The now defunct Wiseman Oil Inc. previously owned a fuel oil recycling facility on the site that in 1978 manufactured lubricating oil. When the company went bankrupt in 1982, Breslube-Penn Inc. purchased the property, which it continued to use to recylce waste oil. The factory was closed in 1992. 

EPA officials performed testing on the land and nearby Montour Run in the early 1980s when it found that semi-volatile organic compounds, including PCBs, metals and cyanide contaminated the area, according to a news release from the agency. 

The EPA in 2011 reached a settlement with eight other parties regarding clean-up of the site. 

Under superfund law, the landowners, waste generators and waste transporters that are responsible for the contamination of a site must either clean up the site, or reimburse the government or other parties for cleanup activities.