State Cleanup Site Gets Funds; Bankrupt W.R. Grace Payment Helps Offset EPA Expenses

By RICK ROMELL

A settlement in a bankruptcy case in Delaware has shone a light on a now-completed million-dollar environmental cleanup of pollutants here that threatened to contaminate the Menomonee River and Lake Michigan with waste oil, solvents and heavy metals.

The hazardous materials were removed from an abandoned site tucked into one of the more obscure corners of the city – 2 acres along the north bank of the Menomonee River just east of the Hawley Road bridge.

The spot was home to a company called Amber Oil, which for years accepted used oil, coolants and other liquid waste from a broad cross section of Wisconsin industry, said Jerome Kujawa, an associate regional counsel with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Fifty-five companies that sent waste to Amber contributed a total of just over $1 million to the cleanup, which was completed in April 2005, Kujawa said.

This week, another firm with Milwaukee ties, W.R. Grace & Co., has agreed to accept liability for $10,000 in costs. That money will help defray EPA expenses related to the site, Kujawa said.

Grace, a chemical-maker based in Columbia, Md., filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors in 2001, seeking refuge from at least 135,000 asbestos claims. The company and six former executives also face criminal charges that they poisoned residents of Libby, Mont., by releasing asbestos into the air.

As part of the bankruptcy case, Grace agreed to a $34 million settlement with the federal government for cleanup costs at 32 Superfund sites across the country. Among them is the former Amber Oil property, but it represents a tiny share of the overall settlement.

The agreement doesn’t necessarily mean the government will get the $34 million. Rather, the settlement gives it an unsecured claim for that amount in the Grace bankruptcy. The claim won’t get any priority treatment, so the government’s ultimate payment will depend on Grace’s ability to cover its debts.

It wasn’t known Thursday what Grace shipped to the Amber Oil site. Grace owned Ambrosia Chocolate here from 1964 to 1997.

The Amber Oil property was used in the 1920s as a refinery, then became a bulk oil storage site, Kujawa said. At some point, he said, the company began accepting used oil, paint solvents, coolants and other waste from a large number of industrial customers.

Kujawa said the site was abandoned in early 2002, leaving 17 above-ground storage tanks, seven underground tanks and about 40 55- gallon drums.

The drums, some of which were rusting, contained toxic metals such as arsenic, chromium and lead, Kujawa said. Waste oil in the above-ground tanks contained heavy metals and solvents that posed a threat to human health and the environment, he said.

“There was a risk of a release, and if it would have spilled on the ground it could have gone right into the Menomonee River,” Kujawa said. ” . . . It was a sloppy thing that they had left.”

Efforts to reach a representative of Amber Oil and a related company, Eco-Tech of Milwaukee Inc. were unsuccessful. City assessment records list Eco-Tech as the property owner, and it was among those that contributed to the $1 million settlement with the EPA.

Bloomberg News contributed to this report.

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