Parties make $856,000 payment to EPA for Sam Jones Junkyard site

On February 21, 2006, the owner of Sam Jones Junkyard and the former site operator reimbursed EPA a total $856,000 for response costs at the site. The payment was required under the terms of a Consent Decree (CD), which was entered by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on August 26, 2005. The Department of the Army and the General Services Administration, also parties to the CD, have already paid $67,000 to resolve the federal government’s liability.

The Sam Jones Junkyard site, located in Prince William County, Virginia, has operated as an automotive salvage and industrial junkyard on the site since 1934. The nearly 66-acre site is covered with old vehicles, batteries, tires, automobile parts and transformers. On-site testing conducted in 1987 revealed the presence of pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals including lead in soils and poly-chloroethylene in an onsite well. Additional testing conducted a decade later showed PCB and other contaminants in a drum as well as PCB contamination in sediments collected from North Fork Creek.

After a fire occurred on site in 1999, EPA conducted a removal action at the request of the Commonwealth of Virginia. EPA’s costs to date have totaled over $900,000, exclusive of prejudgment interest, and EPA has recovered more than 99% from potentially responsible parties.