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September 6, 2000
The Hon. John Baldacci Dear Congressman Baldacci; We write to you to request your help in resolving the Hows Corner Superfund Site matter. As you may know, this Superfund site is the result of contamination from waste oil stored in underground tanks at the Hows Corner site in Plymouth, Maine in the 1970s and 1980s. The site was owned and operated by George West, a contractor whose site was listed by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection as a recommended site for collection of waste oil from central Maine businesses and municipalities. Somehow, the tanks leaked, and now soil and groundwater in the Plymouth area are contaminated. The EPA has named this a Superfund site and, finding that Mr. West is unable to pay for the cost of the cleanup himself, is now pursuing monetary payments from all entities who contributed waste oil to this site. The EPA has proposed a Past Costs Settlement with all 500+ parties who contributed waste oil to the Plymouth site. What the EPA is asking for is not only payment from hundreds of small and large businesses and Towns for cleanup of a problem they did not knowingly contribute to, but also a “blank check” for the federal government to return to each and every one of us to pay for the actual costs of cleanup to be completed later. No one knows what the actual cleanup will cost, but the EPA is sure that it wants to legally lock-in the obligation by each of us to pay for this eventual cleanup. Therefore, the costs we are each expected to agree to pay now are perhaps minuscule compared to the bills which will come later. Why should any of us be expected to pay for cleaning up a site which we did not cause to become defective and ultimately contaminate soil and ground water? Why should we be forced to pay for costs of cleanup at a site which the State of Maine said we should send our waste oil to? Why should we agree to a settlement which will result in future financial obligations of unknown proportions? The Town of Greenville is begin asked to pay $3,393.43 for past costs and also toward a remedial study of the entire site, to determine how best to clean it up. We are asked to sign by September 22, 2000 the consent decree which says we will pay this amount of money and also agree to pay future invoices for cleanup expenses. The Town of Greenville does not feel we should have to pay this amount, nor should we have to pay any future amount for a cleanup of a site which we did not negligently pollute. Would you please work with the EPA to
Part-time help for a year in the front office ($2,400)If we have to make this unbudgeted payment by October 31, 2000, as the attached documents indicate, which of the above-listed planned expenditures do you suggest we forfeit? It would be a shame to go without any of these important items to pay for a cost for doing something which we were told by the State of Maine that we should do. I hope you will help us. Sincerely;
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