By Kelly Kenoyer | December 15, 2021 | Excerpt from WHQR
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One section of the superfund site in Navassa is officially cleaned of pollution, and a second section is on its way to completion. The contaminated site in Brunswick County operated as a a wood-treating plant from 1936 to 1980, which left much of the soil contaminated with creosote.
In 2003, the EPA designated the Kerr McGee Chemical Corp property in Navassa as a superfund site, meaning the owners who polluted that land were supposed to clean up the contamination.
But the company formed a spin-off corporation to hold its contaminated property, which declared bankruptcy in 2009. That company, Tronox, eventually settled a lawsuit with a payout of $59 million dollars to pay for environmental cleanups. $4.2 million went to clean up the site in Navassa with the help of Greenfield Environmental Trust Group, or ETG.
Now, a 20-acre segment of the site has completed its clean-up and been removed from the EPA’s national priority list, with another 16-acre segment on its way.