EPA Press Office:

EPA Settlement Sets Stage for $2.4 Million Cleanup at Olean Well Field Superfund Site in Olean, New York

NEW YORK (May 14, 2024) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a final legal agreement with Kyocera AVX Components Corp. (KAVX) to clean up contaminated soil that was under the former AVX manufacturing building at the Olean Well Field Superfund Site in Olean, New York. The cleanup work has an estimate value of about $2.4 million. Under the agreement, the company will also pay some past and all future EPA oversight costs. The site includes several former industrial facilities that left the soil and groundwater contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs). EPA has overseen work to cleanup soil and groundwater throughout the site. 

“This settlement allows us to address an important source of contamination and it ensures that the polluter is being held responsible for cleaning up contamination in this community,” said EPA Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia.

On September 27, 2023, EPA finalized a cleanup plan for the portion of the site owned by KAVX. The plan will address soil contamination located under and near a former manufacturing building on the KAVX property.

Under the plan, KAVX will:

• Demolish and remove the concrete slab floor and foundation.
• Dig out the polluted soil that is above the water table.
• Take the dug-out material off-site for disposal in appropriate facilities.
• Restore the area with clean fill.

The Olean Well Field site is an approximately 1.5 square-mile area in Cattaraugus County that contains various wells, homes, and manufacturing facilities. Earlier industrial operations at the AVX property, as well as at three other facilities that EPA considers sources of site contamination, resulted in the contamination of soil and groundwater with trichloroethylene, 1,4-dioxane, and other volatile organic compounds. As a result of the contamination at all four facilities, EPA added the site to the Superfund list in 1983. Since that time, EPA has taken steps to ensure clean public drinking water and to cleanup the four source facilities impacting soil and groundwater. Most of the work is being carried out by parties responsible for contamination at the site.

Before being finalized, the agreement, in the form of a judicial consent decree, was made available for a required 30-day public comment period.  No comments were received on the agreement.

Visit the Olean Well Field Superfund site profile page for additional background and site documents.

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For further information: Contact: Carlos Vega, (646) 988-2996, vega.carlos@epa.gov