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ConAgra to Pay $5.7 Million for South Paris Tannery Cleanup

ConAgra Grocery Products Co. LLC, a food giant that includes a wide range of products such as Chef Boyardee and Swiss Miss, is on the hook for environmental cleanup costs in South Paris.

ConAgra will pay the Environmental Protection Agency $5.7 million for efforts to remediate the old A.C. Lawrence Leather site in South Paris. Federal regulators say ConAgra is the successor to the defunct tannery through a complex series of corporate mergers.

Between the 1950s and the 1970s, A.C. Lawrence Leather had disposed of tannery sludge in a series of South Paris lagoons, creating a superfund site which had been covered over with gravel and rediscovered in 2000 after green ooze was found on the banks of the Little Androscoggin River.

The settlement is subject to a 30-day public comment period, and must be approved by the U.S. District Court before it can become final.