The federal government and the state of Connecticut have reached three separate settlements with dozens of involved parties related to the cleanup of the Solvents Recovery Service of New England Superfund (SRSNE) site in Southington.

The site is the former location of a solvent recycling and resale facility that disposed of solvent-laden sludge in lagoons or open pits for 36 years. The distillation process that the facility undertook caused heavy groundwater contamination. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has been conducting various cleanup activities at the site and has accumulated significant costs.

The settlements entitle the EPA to receive payments totaling more than $6 million in reimbursement for past costs incurred by the federal government's clean up actions. In addition, settling parties under the three decrees will pay about $200,000 to resolve federal natural resource damage claims and more than $2 million to resolve natural resource damage claims of the state of Connecticut. 

The $2 million payment will go to the Southington Water District to reimburse the district for costs incurred finding an alternate drinking water source as a result of the contaminated groundwater. The settlements will allow cleanup work to proceed without further costs being borne by taxpayers.

Under the first settlement, a group of 59 potentially responsible parties has agreed to perform the site-wide cleanup, estimated to cost approximately $29 million.

Under the second settlement, 213 "de minimis" parties have settled their potential liability for cleanup costs at the site by making cash payments. Only those parties that sent relatively small volume of waste to the site at the time that it was operating were eligible to join this settlement.

Under the third settlement, one potentially responsible party, M. Swift & Sons Inc., will make a payment based on the company's limited financial ability.