Goulds named in
Superfund lawsuit

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Two months after agreeing to a $300,000 out-of-court settlement in a California environmental lawsuit, Goulds Pumps Inc. has been hit with a Superfund suit in its own back yard.
The action comes after a strong second quarter and a union settlement in which the firm, which moved its corporate headquarters from Seneca Falls to Fairport last year, pledged to remain and expand manufacturing operations in Seneca County.
Filed Aug. 18 in federal district court in Rochester, the Superfund suit targets Goulds Pumps among several firms alleged to have disposed of hazardous materials in a closed, privately owned Seneca County landfill.
The federal Superfund law makes firms that dispose of hazardous substances in such sites liable for cleanup costs.
Known as the Tantalo site, the Seneca County tract operated as a landfill between 1958 and 1974.
The suit alleges that Goulds Pumps disposed of a variety of hazardous materials including paint sludge, phenols and foundry sand at Tantalo over a nine-year period beginning in 1965.
Other firms named in the action include Evans Chemetics Inc., General Motors Corp., GTE Sylvania Inc., North American Philips Corp., Hampshire Chemical Corp. and W.R. Grace and Co. Inc.
Evans Chemetics is a formerly independent Seneca Falls manufacturing firm acquired by the Florida-based W.R. Grace in 1978. The former Evans Chemetics facility in Seneca Falls now is owned by the Massachusetts-based Hampshire Chemical.
Another Seneca Falls facility alleged to have disposed of hazardous substances at Tantalo was owned by the Connecticut-based GTE Sylvania and now is owned by North American Philips of New York City.
GM used the site to landfill wastes from a Syracuse plant, the lawsuit states.
In the action, two real estate developers–Seneca Meadows Inc. of Waterloo and Macedon Homes Inc. of Fairport –seek unspecified damages for loss of use of the affected properties and recovery of cleanup costs.
Seneca Meadows owns the former landfill and adjacent parcels. Macedon Homes owns property adjacent to the former landfill.
Under a 1992 consent order it signed with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Seneca Meadows already has paid $1.57 million to fund a remedial investigation and feasibility study of the site. The suit puts minimum cleanup costs at $20 million.
Under the Superfund law, potentially liable parties, such as Goulds Pumps and the other firms named, can elect to form a group and work out a settlement among themselves and the plaintiffs.
Goulds Pumps officials declined comment on the action filed last week, saying the company had not yet been served with a complaint.
The Superfund suit comes as the company is emerging from several years of slumping sales and profits.
A manufacturer of consumer and industrial pumps, Goulds like most process-industry suppliers endured a low ebb of that segment’s business cycle through the early 1990s.
In the first six months of 1995, the company’s $340.7 million in sales showed an 18.8 percent increase over the same period last year. Net earnings for the first half of 1995 of $13.7 million were 47.2 percent higher than in the first six months of 1994.
In 1994, Goulds Pumps reported earnings of $18.2 million on sales of $585 million, and finished the year with orders of $601.5 million.
Orders of $351.2 million for the first half of 1995 showed a 24.7 percent increase over orders in the same period last year.
The company, meanwhile, plans either to expand present manufacturing facilities in Seneca Falls or to build a new plant there, said Mary Ann Lambertsen, Goulds Pumps vice president of human resources.
It is unclear whether the expansion will mean new jobs, she said.
Goulds Pumps employs 1,400 in Seneca Falls and 5,000 worldwide. The company’s operations include facilities in California, Texas, New England, Europe, South America, Canada, Mexico and the Pacific Rim.