RAMP Industries update

[mdater@nexstar.com]

Hello, Radsafers,
I was forwarded this message and I am forwarding it to Radsafe for those of
us that are interested.
Mark Dater
NeXstar Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
2860 Wilderness Place
Boulder, CO. 80301
Work phone: (303) 546-7703
Fax: (303) 444-0672
E-mail mdater@Nexstar.com
These are my comments and questions and not those of my employer.

Hi, there.
For those of us who sent a barrel or two to the RAMP industries site (or
to RSO Inc., which then sent it on to RAMP), and are involved in the
CERCLA response up there as a Potentially Responsible Parties, I have
the following info, fresh off the phone from EPA:
EPA is pursuing a settlement package based on a cap on the response and
mitigation costs of $8 million, of which the generators (us and
facilities like us) would cover 60%, or 4.8 million.  These costs will
be apportioned by waste-in volume (amount of material ever sent to the
site) adjusted for waste removed by generators during the response.  EPA
will grant a covenant not-to-sue to generators, which provides release
of liability for all future concern at that site.  Generators who have a
share smaller than 0.001% of the total waste in will be offered no-cost,
de micromis settlements.
This settlement offer is being delayed until EPA and the Department of
Justice can agree that the covenant is a reasonable grant -- the money's
not the delaying issue.  DOJ wants EPA to prove that groundwater and
other environmental contamination issues won't be issues before they
grant the covenant.
Settlement letters will be sent out, by EPA's historically optimistic
schedule, in September, 98.  The response, arbitrations and comment
periods for settlements will take about 5 months, then the check will be
due.  So, at the earliest, parties are not paying anything on this until
about Feb of 99.
Some other more waste-management-specific issues are:
There are still 12 40-yard rolloffs of mixed waste on the site, that EPA
is hoping to move out this week or next (we've all heard this before on
this site), and the rolloffs will be going to Permafix and Fluid Tech
for treatment.
The total clean-up cost is estimated at just over $10 million, with the
$8M cap (above) having been seen as the reasonable "generator" cost.
The difference is the cost that EPA is not disagreeing that they
generated by their response (which included mixing D-list waste with
radioactive waste, making 40-yard mixed waste containers).
John
John DeLaHunt, EH&S Manager
The Colorado College
1125 Glen Avenue
Colorado Springs, CO  80905
(719)389-6678 vox
(719)389-6981 fax
jdelahunt@cc.colorado.edu