On April 24, 2023, the EPA signed a CERCLA 122(h) Administrative Settlement Agreement and Order on Consent (ASAOC) with Environmental Quality Management, Inc. (EQM) for past response costs at Operable Unit 2 of the Newton County Mine Tailings Superfund Site. The ASAOC contains a settlement of $1,678,330.40 for the EPA?s past response costs. In addition, EQM signed a separate settlement for its liability under the False Claims Act for $338,119.60 that also became effective on April 24, 2023. The FCA settlement funds will be returned to the benefit of the EPA for a total cost recovery to the Agency of $2,016,450. The EPA is not a signatory to the FCA settlement, but the settlement money will ultimately be sent by the Department of Justice to the EPA as the injured party.
The settlement resolves EQM?s liability resulting from work the company was contracted to do under an Interagency Agreement with USACE on behalf of the EPA beginning in October 2015 where EQM disposed lead-contaminated backfill in Granby City Park. The contract between USACE and EQM required EQM to remediate lead, zinc, and cadmium-contaminated soils within and around the City of Granby, Missouri by removing contaminated soil and backfilling with clean fill material and was completed in 2017. Following the close of the contract, the EPA learned that EQM had knowingly used backfill contaminated with lead in the cleanup of Granby City Park. The total settlement of $2,016,450 constitutes full recovery of the EP