Faced with a Federal court action under US environmental laws, EDO Corp consented to pay for the clean-up of the site that has only this week been completed 32 years later, and yet is still too contaminated to redevelop. Whoever buys the land off the French bank that now owns the site will have to do even more decontamination work to get it up to state standards.

A US press report published today in the Stamford Advocate shows EDO Corp argued in court about how clean the site needed to be, claiming they only agreed to the cleanup so long as older and less sensitive contamination detector equipment was used to measure the soil. The arguments delayed the final -if incomplete- cleanup of the site for 32 years.

The story adds to a litany of bad press for the company that has come to a head in the last 12 months leading to a plunge in their stock price. EDO were also named last year in a racial discrimination court case brought against them and DynCorp by African Americans, as well as a corruption scandal over the F22A multiyear contract along with arms giant Lockheed Martin which led to the resignation of EDO Director Dennis C. Blair (formerly Military Intelligence Director for the C.I.A).

EDO have also been named as beneficiaries in the growing 'Earmark contracts scandal' after making political contributions to certain US politicians now being investigated for taking bribes through a money laundering operation disguised as a children’s cancer hospital. EDO's history of putting carcinogens in children’s drinking water might lead them to want to contribute to a cancer charity, but as the scandal grows it looks like the money went into the pockets of leading members of congressional arms procurement committees who then handed them large contracts in return.

EDO Corp owns EDO MBM Technology Ltd in Brighton UK, which is the cause of continuing anti-war protests in the town. Last year EDO MBM failed in a High Court bid to use UK law to ban peaceful protests outside the Brighton arms factory. The case cost the corporation several million dollars leading to resignation of Managing Director David A. Jones, and a 1st quarter loss, which in turn heralded a further and steady decline in EDO's stock price on Wall Street, causing a 30% drop in their entire market value, or $200 million.

Despite the failing performance of the corporation in 2006, the loss of 400 jobs in California last summer due to bad management, and the closure of EDO’s Rugged Computer section, CEO and Chairman James M. Smith has not declared any reduction in his annual pay which stands a around $1.8 Million. Investors are reported to be waiting for news of 4th quarter results due out in the next few weeks, before deciding on more drastic action.

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 http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-nor.superfund5jan28,0,6894264.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines



Stamford Advocate

MAIN AVENUE SUPERFUND SITE SET FOR REDEVELOPMENT

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By Tim Stelloh
Special Correspondent

Published January 28 2007

NORWALK - After decades of environmental probes and cleanups, the run-down, fenced-off buildings near the Kellogg-Deering Well Field on Main Avenue will be razed by mid-February, the owner's attorney said.

"They never thought they'd see the day when these buildings would be torn down and (the property) put back to productive use," said Jane Warren, an attorney for Baii Recouvrement, the French bank that owns the site.

In 1975, the federal Environmental Protection Agency found contaminants in municipal wells about 2,000 feet east of the industrial buildings.

The wells provide about 10 percent of the drinking water for Norwalk's First Taxing District, said Frank Chieffalo of the district's water department.

The district draws water from the aquifer through wells and from reservoirs outside Norwalk to supply water to 55 percent of the city. Aquifers are layers of underground sand or rock that collect water. The district's aquifer covers an area that radiates about 1.5 miles from wells off Broad Street.

The EPA discovered several poisonous chemicals in the wells, including trichloroethylene, a known carcinogen.

In 1984, the well field and building complex - which once housed manufacturers of metal handbag frames and engines, according to EPA documents - were added to the federal Superfund cleanup program.

Two years later, the EPA discovered that solvents and plating chemicals the manufacturers used were the source of the well contamination. The property's tenants, Zell Products Corp. and Elinco, which were not responsible for the pollution, signed a court order in 1992 requiring them to clean up the land.

The parties involved in the cleanup have engaged in a tug-of-war since then, Warren said.

"It's been a long time that we've been trying to get them to finish the cleanup under the consent order," she said. "We couldn't sell (the land) or market it."

Terrence Connelly, the EPA's project manager for the site, said that before he took over, the agency and the tenants - including EDO Corp. and AB Dick - had a "long-standing discussion" about how to test the soil beneath the complex.

The EPA and state Department of Environmental Protection initially insisted on using more stringent standards than were in place when the consent order was signed.

The dispute involved an innovation in soil testing that prevented contaminants from degrading, said Graham Stevens, project manager for the state DEP.

"This generally, in the industry, created higher contaminant results," he said. "The settling parties said they wanted the old method used."

Donald Stever, an attorney for EDO and AB Dick, said the new technology "over-reported" contaminant concentrations in the soil.

"My clients had to spend more money," Stever said, "while the EPA worked out a set of 'how clean is clean' specifics."

He disputed Connelly's assertion that soil decontamination slowed the cleanup process.

"That didn't hold up the remedy at all," Stever said. "Most Superfund sites have not been cleaned up. This one has."

Even so, the site requires additional cleaning.

The soil meets EPA standards but not the state's more stringent rules, Stevens said.

Warren said whoever purchases the property must clean up the soil to meet state requirements.

Stevens said the additional cleanup shouldn't be a major problem.

"Any time you redevelop a site, it's the easiest time to clean it up," he said. "The cost of the cleanup can be greatly reduced."

In the meantime, EDO and AB Dick are completing groundwater cleanup to meet EPA regulations.

However, Stever said it's unlikely that will happen.

The contamination "is in the bedrock," he said. "At some point, the government is going to have to say enough is enough."

The land's future remains unclear. Warren said the property has attracted bids, but it has not been sold.

"Because the federal government and the state don't have the same cleanup standards, potential purchasers are leery," she said. "It makes the sale process that much more difficult."

Copyright © 2007, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.