U.S. Settles With Cos. On Wells G&H Superfund Site Remediation

WOBURN, MA — The U.S. government settled with a group of sixteen companies Tuesday in relation to industrial pollution at the Wells G&H Superfund Site in Woburn.

The federal government is requiring the companies to reimburse it and take action to remediate the Southwestern portion of the site, known as OU4, along Salem Street, as part of a negotiated settlement.

Defendants include 280 Salem Street, Murphy's Waste Oil and Conagra, which own or previously owned the land in question, as well as a variety of companies that used OU4 for disposal or treatment of hazardous substances. The second group includes Eversource, Gillette and Sherwin-Williams, among others.

OU4 has contained a waste oil facility, a tannery and an auto repair and salvage facility, which the Environmental Protection Agency has found to have contaminated soil and adjacent wetland with hazardous substances.

According to the settlement, EPA monitoring, maintenance and other measures have cost the federal government $1.1 million.

The 330-acre Wells G&H consists of two municipal wells which were shut down due to industrial contamination in 1979. Cleanup at the source area began in 1992 and the EPA issued a decision on cleanup methods for OU4 in 2017, but cleanup will not begin until negotiation with the responsible companies is completed.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.

An earlier version of this story misstated the nature of the legal action. It is a negotiated settlement, not a lawsuit.