ST. LOUIS –– The owner of a hazardous waste site violated an agreement to clean up the property, a federal judge ruled.
In the Aug. 21 order, Judge Henry E. Autrey of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri granted summary judgment to Spectrum Brands, who transferred the property to Compton LLC, a furniture store company.
The site, located in Macon, Missouri, is contaminated with trichloroethylene or TCE as a result of small appliance manufacturing.
According to court documents, Comptom agreed to assume all environmental liability and perform all needed remediation, including continuing a "Brownsfield" investigation overseen by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR).
When Compton did not timely remediate the property, the Environmental Protection Agency threatened both companies with fines. Spectrum then initiated the suit.
"CLLC’s (Compton) obligations are unambiguously set forth and acknowledged in the 2011 Agreement whereby CLLC agreed to 'assume, pay and be responsible for all environmental clean-up liability, claims, [and] clean-up costs . . . associated with the property,” Autrey wrote.
Autrey also denied Compton’s move to strike the findings of Spectrum’s expert Judith Spry as moot since he granted summary judgment without relying on the expert report.