Helena may be on hook for Texas cleanup costs

Mission, Tex.-EPA Region 6 officials won’t say if Helena Chemical Co. will be on the hook for all or even part of the $6 million spent by federal and state agencies to clean up the old Helena plant that ceased operations in 1972. “We normally pursue cost recovery,” spokesman Dave Bary told Green Markets. “But that matter is under review by the enforcement staff, and we won’t know until the cost recovery staff makes a decision.” Bary did note, however, that there are more potentially responsible parties than just Helena. Cleanup has been on and off since the early 1980s at the site, where pesticides were formulated on a city block surrounded on three sides by homes. As a result of a lawsuit filed by EPA, former owners Helena Chemical and Tex-Ag Co. entered into a consent decree to clean up the contaminated property. In 1982 a district judge ruled all cleanup activities were complete. The state dug up the most highly contaminated soils and buried them in a repository onsite covered by asphalt. But the asphalt cap deteriorated over time and caused concern among residents, reported EPA, which in 2006 removed contaminated soils to a depth of 3½ feet and brought in clean backfill. A month ago, reported Bary, a remaining mix building was removed and soils sampled to see if additional contamination remains.