United States of America and State of Nebraska v. Union Pacific Railroad Company and Union Pacific Corporation: Consent Decree

United States of America and State of Nebraska v. Union Pacific Railroad Company and Union Pacific Corporation: Consent Decree

Payment for Damages of Omaha Lead Site

This document force Union Pacific, another potentially responsible party, to pay for and perform some remedial work towards the remediation of the Omaha Lead Site. The document requires Union Pacific to pay $3.15 million for work related to health education and community involvement about lead and its health risks. This work would be performed by the Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance and was the origin of the organization and its work in Omaha. The work was to be implemented over the course of five years until the Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance had used all $3.15 million for community involvement and health education. This shows some attempt by the EPA to hold a party responsible for their pollution by directly reaching out into the community to help prevent harm from lead through education. This is different from the settlement with ASARCO in that it includes these specific provisions. In addition to performing this outreach work, Union Pacific was also required to pay $9,500,000 to pay for the cost of past responses taken on by the EPA, as well as an additional $400,000 to the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality. They were also required to pay $11,850,000 for funding for other programs including stabilization of lead-based paint, the City of Omaha’s Lead Hazard Registry, child blood-lead screening in Douglas County Health Department’s Lead Poising Prevention Program, and response to interior lead-contaminated dust. Additionally, $100,000 to the Department of Interior for natural resource damage. The EPA holding Union Pacific responsible in this way was certainly significant for a number of reasons. First, by funding Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance and Douglas County’s Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, some of the damages paid by Union Pacific went directly to assisting in preventing future impacts on the lives of Omaha residents, especially children. Additionally, Union Pacific’s payments also went to help further defray the costs of previous clean up work. However, this document is missing an assessment of how much money the United States Government was owed by Union Pacific, as was present in the settlement with ASARCO. As such, it is challenging to say to what extent the EPA actually accomplished the goal of “making responsible parties pay” in the case of Union Pacific. It should not be denied that the Consent Decree with Union Pacific did a good deal to make the company pay for the part they played in polluting the Omaha Lead Site. However, without knowing an exact quantification of the harm done by Union Pacific, it cannot be said with certainty the extent to which the EPA was effective in accomplishing their goals.

The United States District Court for the District of Nebraska

epa.gov

Environmental Protection Agency

June 1, 2011

pdf

English

Legal Document

Civil Action No. 8:11CV195

Legal Document