EPA Adds Oklahoma Site to Superfund National Priorities List

 USEPA News Release:

EPA Adds Oklahoma Site to Superfund National Priorities List

Biden-Harris Administration Continues Its Commitment to Cleaning Up Pollution and Address Public Health Risks

DALLAS, TEXAS (September 8, 2023) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it is finalizing adding Oklahoma’s Fansteel Metals/FMRI Superfund site to the National Priorities List (NPL). This list contains sites throughout the United States and its territories where releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants pose significant threats to human health and the environment.

“Finalizing the Fansteel Metals/FMRI site to the National Priorities List will help protect the people and environment of Muskogee,” said Regional Administrator Dr. Earthea Nance. “Part of the historic amounts of funding through the Biden-Harris Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will now be available for remediation, outreach, and cleanup efforts at this site. I would like to thank our state partners and Muskogee residents for their patience as we continue to work together to remove the hazardous substances from this site.”

 

The Fansteel Metals/FMRI site in Muskogee, Oklahoma, encompasses 105 acres along the Arkansas River. This area is also within the historic boundaries of the Cherokee Nation land. The site operated between the years of 1956 to 1989, producing metals from uranium ore. The residue from these operations was disposed of in acidic ponds. Over the years, the groundwater near the facility became contaminated with metal residue. A water treatment system is in place, but funding for the system is expected to run out next year. The state of Oklahoma referred the site to EPA to ensure the water treatment system remains in place to prevent contaminated water from potentially leaking into the Arkansas River.

 

EPA is adding the following sites to the National Priorities List: 

 

• Federated Metals Corp Whiting in Hammond, Indiana.
• Capitol Lakes in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
• Fansteel Metals/FMRI in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

 

 

EPA is proposing to add the following sites to the National Priorities List: 

 

• Former Exide Technologies Laureldale in Laureldale, Pennsylvania.
• Acme Steel Coke Plant in Chicago, Illinois.
• Exide Baton Rouge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
• Lot 46 Valley Gardens TCE in Des Moines, Iowa.

 

Superfund sites disproportionately affect overburdened and underserved communities. All the sites being added or proposed to be added to the National Priorities List are in communities with potential environmental justice concerns based on income, demographic, education, linguistic, and life expectancy data from EJSCREEN. By adding sites to the National Priorities List, EPA is delivering protections to communities that need it the most.

 

Nationally there are thousands of contaminated sites, from landfills, to processing plants, to manufacturing facilities, due to hazardous waste being dumped, left out in the open, or otherwise improperly managed. The historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law accelerates EPA’s work to clean up this pollution with a $3.5 billion investment in the Superfund Remedial Program. The law also reinstates the Superfund chemical excise taxes, making it one of the largest investments in American history to address legacy pollution.

 

EPA typically proposes sites to the National Priorities List based on a scientific determination of risks to people and the environment, consistent with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act and the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan. The National Contingency Plan also allows each State to designate a single site as its top priority to be listed on the National Priorities List, without the need to apply a scientific determination. The State of Oklahoma is designating the Fansteel Metals/FMRI site its top-priority site. 

 

Before EPA adds a site to the National Priorities List, a site must meet EPA’s requirements and be proposed for addition to the list in the Federal Register, subject to a 60-day public comment period. EPA will add the site to the National Priorities List if it continues to meet the listing requirements after the public comment period closes and the agency has responded to any comments. 

 

Background:   

The National Priorities List includes the nation’s most serious uncontrolled or abandoned releases of contamination. This list serves as the basis for prioritizing EPA Superfund cleanup funding and enforcement actions. Only releases at non-federal sites included on the National Priorities List are eligible to receive federal funding for long-term, permanent cleanup.  

 

Superfund cleanups provide health and economic benefits to communities. The program is credited for significant reductions in both birth defects and blood-lead levels among children living near sites, and research has shown residential property values increase up to 24 percent within three miles of sites after cleanup. 

 

Since taking office, the Biden-Harris Administration has followed through on updating the National Priorities List twice a year, as opposed to once per year. Today’s announcement is the second time EPA is updating the National Priorities List in 2023. 

 

For information about Superfund and the National Priorities List, please visit our webpage. For Federal Register notices and supporting documents for the National Priorities List and proposed sites, please visit the New Proposed and New Superfund National Priorities List Sites 

EPA Includes Two Baton Rouge Sites in National Priorities List Update

 USEPA News Release:

EPA Includes Two Baton Rouge Sites in National Priorities List Update

Biden-Harris Administration Continues Its Commitment to Cleaning Up Pollution and Address Public Health Risks

 

DALLAS, TEXAS (Sept. 8, 2023) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced two sites in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, are included in the most recent update to the Superfund National Priorities List, a list of known sites throughout the United States and its territories where releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants pose significant threats to human health and the environmental. EPA is proposing to add the Exide Baton Rouge site to the National Priorities List, and finalizing the Capitol Lakes site to the list.

 

“Residents of heavily industrialized communities like Baton Rouge should not have to live with higher levels of water, air and soil contamination,” said Regional Administrator Dr. Earthea Nance. “With historic levels of funding through the Biden-Harris Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, sites like Capitol Lakes and Exide Baton Rouge are getting the focus they deserve to prevent harms to people’s health and the environment.”

 

The Capitol Lakes site encompasses three lakes in Baton Rouge, Louisiana—North Lake, South Lake, and East Lake—on 60 acres next to the Capitol Building and the Governor’s Mansion. Starting in the 1970s, sediments and fish tissue from the lakes have shown contamination from Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), which can cause liver damage and skin conditions. Other contaminants of concern include arsenic, mercury and lead. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality referred the site to EPA in 2021. A fishing advisory remains in effect for the site to warn residents against consuming fish from the lakes.

 

The Exide Baton Rouge site is a former secondary lead smelter and refinery. The proposed National Priorities List site covers 33 acres next to Baton Rouge Bayou. High concentrations of antimony, arsenic, lead, manganese and zinc have been found in groundwater and soils on the site, with unlined waste piles and open surface impoundments contributing to discharges of contaminated ground and surface water. An onsite system is in place to collect and treat contaminated leachate. The state of Louisiana referred the site to EPA to ensure continued operation of the wastewater treatment system.

 

 

EPA is adding the following sites to the National Priorities List: 

 

• Federated Metals Corp Whiting in Hammond, Indiana.
• Capitol Lakes in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
• Fansteel Metals/FMRI in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

 

EPA is proposing to add the following sites to the National Priorities List: 

 

• Former Exide Technologies Laureldale in Laureldale, Pennsylvania.
• Acme Steel Coke Plant in Chicago, Illinois.
• Exide Baton Rouge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
• Lot 46 Valley Gardens TCE in Des Moines, Iowa.

 

Superfund sites disproportionately affect overburdened and underserved communities. All the sites being added or proposed to be added to the National Priorities List are in communities with potential environmental justice concerns based on income, demographic, education, linguistic, and life expectancy data from EJSCREEN. By adding sites to the National Priorities List, EPA is delivering protections to communities that need it the most.

 

Nationally there are thousands of contaminated sites, from landfills, to processing plants, to manufacturing facilities, due to hazardous waste being dumped, left out in the open, or otherwise improperly managed. The historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law accelerates EPA’s work to clean up this pollution with a $3.5 billion investment in the Superfund Remedial Program. The law also reinstates the Superfund chemical excise taxes, making it one of the largest investments in American history to address legacy pollution.

 

EPA typically proposes sites to the National Priorities List based on a scientific determination of risks to people and the environment, consistent with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act and the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan. The National Contingency Plan also allows each State to designate a single site as its top priority to be listed on the National Priorities List, without the need to apply a scientific determination. The State of Oklahoma is designating the Fansteel Metals/FMRI site its top-priority site. 

 

Before EPA adds a site to the National Priorities List, a site must meet EPA’s requirements and be proposed for addition to the list in the Federal Register, subject to a 60-day public comment period. EPA will add the site to the National Priorities List if it continues to meet the listing requirements after the public comment period closes and the agency has responded to any comments. 

 

Background:   

The National Priorities List includes the nation’s most serious uncontrolled or abandoned releases of contamination. This list serves as the basis for prioritizing EPA Superfund cleanup funding and enforcement actions. Only releases at non-federal sites included on the National Priorities List are eligible to receive federal funding for long-term, permanent cleanup.  

 

Superfund cleanups provide health and economic benefits to communities. The program is credited for significant reductions in both birth defects and blood-lead levels among children living near sites, and research has shown residential property values increase up to 24 percent within three miles of sites after cleanup. 

 

Since taking office, the Biden-Harris Administration has followed through on updating the National Priorities List twice a year, as opposed to once per year. Today’s announcement is the second time EPA is updating the National Priorities List in 2023. 

 

For information about Superfund and the National Priorities List, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/superfund. 

 

For Federal Register notices and supporting documents for the National Priorities List and proposed sites, please visit: 

New Proposed and New Superfund National Priorities List Sites 

 PRESS RELEASE

Federal Escapee Sentenced for Leading $4.1 Million Meth Conspiracy

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Conspiracy Linked to Two Murders, multiple assaults, and distribution of 400 Kilos of Meth

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Trevor Scott Sparks, a Kansas City, Missouri, federal defendant who escaped after trial and was recaptured, was sentenced in federal district court today for his role in leading a $4.1 million heavily armed drug-trafficking conspiracy, and directing two kidnappings, both resulting in murders, and numerous assaults.  The drug trafficking organization (DTO) Sparks led distributed approximately 400 kilograms of methamphetamine in the Kansas City and St. Louis metropolitan areas in 2017 and 2018.

Sparks, 34, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to life imprisonment, plus 60 months consecutive, in federal prison without parole on the drug, money, and gun charges, all consecutive to 33 months for the escape.  The court also ordered Sparks to pay a money judgment of $400,000.00, which represents the profits he received from the drug-trafficking conspiracy. That forfeiture amount is based on the unlawful distribution of approximately 100 kilograms of methamphetamine, based on an average street sale price of $7,500.00 per kilogram, and an average cost to the DTO of $3,500.00 a kilogram.  Sparks and the co-conspirators he supplied are believed to have distributed approximately 400 kilograms of methamphetamine in less than 2 years.

On November 7th, 2022, Sparks was found guilty by a jury of all counts presented during the weeklong trial.  The charges included participating in conspiracies to distribute methamphetamine and launder drug proceeds from January 1, 2017, to December 18, 2018, possessing firearms in relation to that drug-trafficking crime, and to being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition.  Sparks and several of his co-conspirators were arrested out of a residence on Smart Avenue in the Northeast area of Kansas City, Missouri, on December 18, 2018.  Located in that residence were numerous firearms, cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, United States currency, drug ledgers, and other indicia of drug trafficking.  This is the same residence where at least two of the DTO related assaults occurred.   

While no one was charged with nor convicted at trial of it, members of the Sparks DTO were found responsible at sentencing by the Court for two murders. In early August 2018, James “Old School” Hampton was seized in St. Louis by members of the Sparks DTO at the direction of Sparks.  Hampton was seized because the drug conspiracy was convinced Hampton could help find the drugs and money stolen by co-conspirator David Richards. When they realized Hampton could not or would not help, Hampton was restrained, beaten, and tortured. Hampton was then kidnapped and transported from St. Louis to Kansas City in the trunk of his own car. Brittanie Broyles, who was with Hampton and witnessed him being beaten, tortured, restrained, and kidnapped, was also kidnapped and taken to Kansas City.  Once in Kansas City, Hampton was left in the trunk of his car and he and his car were secreted in a co-conspirator’s garage near the Smart residence. Broyles managed to obtain control of another co-conspirator’s cellular telephone and surreptitiously send text messages to friends and family in St. Louis about her and “Old School’s” plight.  Once that was discovered by the DTO, Sparks directed the DTO to move from one hotel to another, thereby thwarting efforts to locate Broyles. Her friends and family and law enforcement were unable to locate her before she was murdered by members of the Sparks DTO.

On August 6, 2018, Hampton’s car and body were discovered burning in Bates City, Missouri.  This was after members of the DTO retrieved Hampton’s car (and body) from the secreted location and Sparks directed them to take it and burn it because of the odor emanating from the vehicle and to destroy the evidence and Hampton’s body.  Witnesses and video identified Co-Defendant Gerald Lee Ginnings of Grandview, Missouri, being followed by Co-Defendant Markus Michael A. Patterson, of Kansas City, Missouri, in another co-conspirator’s car, as Ginnings drove Hampton’s car with his body in the trunk to Bates City, Missouri, where it was found by the Sni Valley Fire Department fully engulfed.  Once they extinguished the flames, Hampton’s desecrated body was found in what was left of the trunk.  Sparks forgave a drug debt of Ginnings for this duty.    

On August 8, 2018, Broyles’s body was recovered near the Super Flea in the Northeast area of Kansas City, Missouri. She had been murdered by two gunshots to her head.  While not charged nor convicted of it, the Court at sentencing found that witnesses and evidence implicated Sparks in ordering her killing because of what she knew about Hampton.  Ginnings and Patterson were likewise implicated as the two responsible for this murder.  Ginnings was sentenced August 25, 2023, to 520 months in federal prison on similar charges to Sparks.  Co-Defendant Patterson was sentenced August 17, 2023, to 560 months on the same charges.   

Under federal law, it is illegal for anyone involved in drug trafficking to possesses firearms related to that trafficking and it is also illegal for anyone who has been convicted of a felony to be in possession of any firearm or ammunition. Sparks has prior felony convictions for robbery, drug offenses, and assault.

Sparks was the main defendant over two indictments with 32 co-defendants, all who have pleaded guilty and been sentenced in those two cases.

On December 6, 2022, Sparks and fellow federal inmate Sergio Perez-Martinez escaped the Cass County jail where they were being held for sentencing in their respective federal cases.  On December 30, 2022, Sparks was apprehended in the Northeast area of Kansas City, Missouri.  Also charged in that escape case was Perez-Martinez (still at large), Sparks’ mother and stepfather, and another man, who was the co-conspirator that stored the car with Hampton in it.  Sparks was also sentenced today for that escape to which he pled guilty on June 28, 2023.    

These cases were prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bruce Rhoades and Robert M. Smith. They were investigated by the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department, the Sni Valley Fire Department, the Jackson, Lafayette, Buchanan, Phelps, and Cass County, Mo., Sheriff’s Departments, the FBI, the Jackson County Drug Task Force, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, and the St. James, Mo., Police Department.

Updated September 5, 2023

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Defendant Charged in Connection with Federal Escapee is Sentenced

 PRESS RELEASE

Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Individual Charged with Aiding Federally Convicted Escaped Defendant is Sentenced to Prison

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – An Indictment from earlier this year in the Western District of Missouri Federal Court charging individuals with escaping confinement and other individuals with assisting them, resulted in an incarceration sentence of 16 months for one of those charged, consecutive to a pending State of Missouri case.

Trevor Scott Sparks, 33, Kansas City, MO, and Sergio Perez Martinez, 43, Panorama City, CA, were charged in a two-count Indictment with escape from confinement and aiding or assisting each other in escape from confinement.  Another individual, John Douglas Baxter, 57, of Blue Springs, MO, was also charged in the Indictment with a single count of aiding or assisting in the escape. 

As of the drafting of this release, Perez Martinez remains at large, although Sparks was re-arrested December 30th, 2022. Baxter, who has been in custody pending resolution of his charges since Sparks was captured, was sentenced today for his role in assisting that escape.  The Court sentenced him to 16 months in custody, consecutive to any sentence he may receive in a pending state case that resulted from Missouri moving to revoke his parole from a prior state felony conviction.

After arrests on federal felony warrants, and because of jury trial convictions and guilty pleas to various felony charges contained within several Western District of Missouri (WDMO) Federal Grand Jury indictments and various orders of WDMO Federal District Court Judge D. Greg Kays, Trevor Scott Sparks and Sergio Perez Martinez were confined in the Cass County, Missouri, Jail on multiple federal felonies.

Federal, state, and local law enforcement began investigating the escape of Sparks and Martinez from the Cass County Jail on or about December 5, 2022. On December 6, 2022, the United States Marshals Service was notified by Cass County, Missouri, that Sparks escaped from confinement and was seen leaving the facility at 10:22 p.m. on December 5, 2022. It was later determined that Sparks and Martinez, another inmate in the Cass County facility, escaped through subterfuge and damage to the facility from the Cass County Jail and fled east outside the jail into the surrounding rural community. From there, a co-defendant picked them up in his vehicle and transported them to his apartment in Kansas City, Missouri, where they obtained clothes and food. They were then transported into the Northeast area of the Kansas City metropolitan area.  Sparks and his mother, Co-Defendant Dawn Branstietter, were subsequently arrested in this same general area on December 30, 2022.  Branstietter’s husband, Defendant Baxter, was also later arrested on the same aiding escape charges.  Branstietter and Baxter provided food, clothing, and housing to Sparks while Sparks was a fugitive.  Branstietter is scheduled for sentencing Thursday. 

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bruce Rhoades and Robert Smith. It is being investigated by the United States Marshal Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Kansas City Police Department, and the Cass County Sheriff’s Department with other law enforcement agencies also assisting

Updated September 6, 2023

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Tadano Group to Pay $40 Million to Settle Clean Air Act Violations After Selling Noncompliant Diesel Engines

 USEPA News Release:

Tadano Group to Pay $40 Million to Settle Clean Air Act Violations After Selling Noncompliant Diesel Engines

Group will also help mitigate harmful air emissions by contributing $3.2 million for a new, cleaner tugboat for the Port of Port Arthur, Texas

DALLAS, TEXAS (September 1, 2023) –The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Japan-based Tadano Ltd. and its subsidiaries – known collectively as the Tadano Group – will pay a $40 million civil penalty and contribute an additional $3.2 million to reduce diesel emissions to resolve allegations that it violated Title II of the Clean Air Act (CAA). EPA and the Justice Department worked together to negotiate the settlement, which resolves allegations that Tadano Group imported and sold nonroad cranes with diesel engines not certified to applicable CAA emission standards, and that Tadano Group violated related CAA and regulatory requirements, resulting in the release of excess carcinogenic diesel exhaust containing nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM). 

“Diesel exhaust is one of the dirtiest forms of pollution,” said Assistant Administrator David M. Uhlmann for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Exposure to diesel exhaust is linked to serious health conditions, including asthma and respiratory illness, and those health risks are increased by engines that fail to meet emission standards. This settlement should send a clear message that EPA will continue to vigorously enforce against companies that sell illegal diesel engines, including nonroad engines.”

“Tadano Group imported and sold giant cranes with engines that didn’t carry valid EPA certificates of conformity, flouting federal law that protects the public from harmful emissions,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This settlement holds Tadano accountable for its violations and requires completion of a project that will improve the quality of life for those living in the Port Arthur, Texas area.”

Tadano Group will also spend $3.2 million on a project to mitigate the harm caused by excess NOx and PM emissions from its noncompliant crane engines by retiring and replacing a 1975 tugboat with a new, cleaner tugboat to service ships in the Port of Port Arthur, Texas. The old tugboat has outdated diesel engines which release unnecessary pollution near low-income communities with environmental justice concerns. The new tugboat will have up-to-date, Tier 4 engines, preventing the release of an estimated 2,075 tons of NOx emissions and more than 22 tons of PM emissions over 20 years. The Port of Port Arthur is near the Tadano America Corp. facility in Houston, TX.

The complaint against Tadano Group alleges that, between 2011 and 2017, Tadano sold nonroad cranes with at least 269 diesel engines that violated the CAA because the engines were not covered by current EPA-issued certificates of conformity, nor did the engines qualify for a limited exemption under EPA’s Transition Program for Equipment Manufacturers. The Tadano Group also did not comply with CAA reporting, bonding, and fuel inlet labelling requirements. The Tadano Group includes Germany-based Tadano Faun GmbH, Tennessee-based Tadano Mantis Corp. and Texas-based Tadano America Corp.

The Environment and Natural Resources Division’s Environmental Enforcement Section filed the complaint and lodged the proposed consent decree on behalf of the EPA in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The settlement is subject to a public comment period and final court approval. The consent decree will be available for viewing here.