Safety-Kleen Settlement Leaves S.C. Potentially Liable For Cleanup

Date: June 7, 2004

Source: News Room

South Carolina officials have agreed to a settlement with the bankrupt Safety-Kleen Corp. that includes releasing the company from responsibility for cleanup at its rural Sumter County landfill. The company purchased an annuity that will pay the state about $1 million to $3 million for 100 years, and also left $14.5 million for a major cleanup. The total amount for cleanup comes to about $49 million, but an independent estimate put the total potential cleanup cost from a major spill at $133 million. Some officials have expressed concern that if the 279-acre landfill were to leak, the state would be on the hook for the remainder of the cleanup. But negotiators defended the settlement as one of the best that creditors reached with the company.

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