EPA Orders 4 Out-of-State Firms and 3 Individuals to Pay $16 Million for Grant Gear Works PCB Cleanup- August 15, 1990

Crucially, the EPA announced that the Town of Norwood and several other previously targeted individuals originally ordered to contribute will not have to pay anything. The federal agency, which has overseen the cleanup of the industrial land off Route 1 and Dean Street, gave the responsible parties 30 days to produce the $16 million.

Each of the targeted companies owned or operated on the property at various points since the 1950s, utilizing toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in manufacturing electrical transformers and components. According to EPA lawyer Ricki Rodriguez, the order followed months of unsuccessful settlement negotiations because none of the companies submitted “good faith offers.” If the firms refuse to pay, the EPA intends to sue for the cleanup costs while assessing penalties totaling up to $48 million.

The companies and individuals ordered to pay include:

• Cornell-Dubilier Electronics Inc. of Wayne, N.J., which purchased the land in 1959 and manufactured electric capacitors until 1968 (having previously spent $400,000 on PCB cleanups in New Bedford).
• Friedland Brothers Enterprises of Gladwyne, Pa., which owned the property between 1960 and 1979, alongside individual principals Jack Friedland, Harold Friedland, and Leonard Friedland.
• Federal Pacific Electric Co. of Cleveland, which leased the property between 1960 and 1979.
• Cooper Industries Inc. of Houston.

Representatives for the companies and the Friedlands were either unavailable or declined immediate comment.

The site contains three major hazardous substances: PCBs, trichloroethane, and vinyl chloride, all known to cause cancer in laboratory animals. Rodriguez noted that while the EPA pursues funding from the responsible corporations, the remediation will proceed immediately under the federal Superfund program, meaning the government will advance funds until the responsible parties pay. The EPA estimates the complex project will take at least 10 years and cost a minimum of $16 million. The cleanup strategy features air stripping to decontaminate groundwater—a process expected to take seven years—alongside chemical treatments for soil and sediment around Meadow Brook, the nearby contaminated stream. Toxic materials will be shipped out of state for incineration over an estimated two-year period, while building drains and pipes will be scoured or encased in concrete. Actual remediation is projected to begin in roughly two years, bringing the total timeline to nearly a decade since the contamination was first discovered in 1983.

Those dropped from the financial liability list—whittled down based on financial ability to pay—include Tobe Deutschmann, a Canton radio manufacturer who bought the site from the government in 1947 and is now ailing with his company dissolved; John and Robert Hurley, owners of Grant Gear Works Inc. of Norwood, who purchased the property in 1980 after active PCB dumping ceased; and the Town of Norwood, which owns small parcels surrounding Meadow Brook. Rodriguez emphasized that omitting these parties does not absolve them of underlying responsibility, but simply reflects their current inability to pay.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger