The Beede Waste Oil Site

The Beede Waste Oil Site is the former location of a state-licensed and regulated waste oil recycling and disposal facility. It consists of approximately 40 acres on Kelley Road in Plaistow, New Hampshire.

The Beede Site was owned and operated by Beede Waste Oil Company, a New Hampshire state-licensed and regulated facility. The operations at the Beede Site began in the 1920s, and until 1994, thousands of New Hampshire residents and businesses used the Site for waste oil recycling and disposal, as recommended by the state. Thousands of other businesses in New England and beyond also used the Site for waste oil recycling and disposal, as well as for shipping petroleum-contaminated soil for asphalt batching in the last years of the Site’s operation.

The state of New Hampshire ordered the Site’s closure in 1994 and, as a result of soil and groundwater contamination, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared the facility a “Superfund Site” in 1996 under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, also known as “CERCLA” or the “Superfund Law.” CERCLA is a federal statute that imposes liability, without regard to fault, on the various parties that used the Site.

In 2004, EPA identified its selected remedy and cleanup plan for the Site, which includes groundwater extraction and treatment, treatment of deeper soils, and excavation and off-Site disposal of shallow soils and sediments.

In July 2006, twelve companies, referred to as the Beede Site Group, agreed to implement the cleanup of the Site in accordance with the EPA Cleanup plan. These parties had been customers of the former operators and paid to have waste oil recycled or petroleum-contaminated soils handled at the state-licensed Beede facility, acting in compliance with recycling and disposal procedures and applicable environmental laws of the time.