February 4, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA:
A fund administered by NOAA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, in their capacity as natural resource trustees, has received a disbursement of more than $13 million and anticipate receiving an additional estimated $9 million to restore natural resources harmed by the activities of Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. as part of the largest environmental settlement in U.S. history.
The jointly recovered funds will be used in a multi-year effort to restore natural resources and habitats injured by the release of hazardous substances from the former Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. wood treatment facility in Navassa, North Carolina. The trustees also received an earlier disbursement of $915,836 for the site.
The two disbursements are part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) settlement with Andarko Petroleum Corp. and it subsidiaries. The $5.15 billion settlement is the largest payment for the cleanup of environmental contamination ever obtained in a DOJ lawsuit.
Environmental damage in the Navassa region, which includes the Cape Fear River watershed, was the result of creosote-based wood treatments that occurred on the site from the mid-1930s until 1974. As a result of this industrial activity, hazardous substances such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have been found in on-site soils, groundwater, and Sturgeon Creek marsh sediments, which provide important habitat for fish, birds and other wildlife.
Read the full story on NOAA's website