North Carolina Company Sued for Avoiding Superfund Cleanup

A North Carolina company allegedly engaged in a fraudulent scheme to avoid the costs of cleaning up the Wright Chemical Superfund Site in Columbus County, the US said in a federal CERCLA complaint.

Oak-Bark Corp. bought the site in 2004, which had been polluted by two sulfuric acid manufacturing plants, a phosphate fertilizer plant, and chemical spray fields from the 1880s to the 1990s, the complaint said.

But after the US Environmental Protection Agency determined that the soil contamination at the site warranted further review in 2005, Oak-Bark sold its business assets and paid most of the sale proceeds to ...