Goodrich Asbestos Superfund Site

Goodrich Asbestos Superfund Site
Location	1000 Goodrich Boulevard, Miami, Ottawa County, Oklahoma 74354
Former use	B.F. Goodrich tire & rubber facility (~1946–1986)
Program	EPA Superfund (CERCLA)
Anchor action	Proposed §122(h)(1) ability-to-pay settlement
Federal Register	Doc. 2026-08370 (Notice, EPA Region 6), April 30, 2026
Settlement type	Individual ability-to-pay "cashout" — $100,000
Comment period	Closed ~June 1, 2026 (30 days)
Corporate lineage	B.F. Goodrich → Goodrich Corp → UTC → RTX (Collins Aerospace)

Executive Summary

The Goodrich Asbestos Superfund Site is a former B.F. Goodrich tire and rubber manufacturing facility at 1000 Goodrich Boulevard in Miami, Ottawa County, Oklahoma, now the subject of federal Superfund enforcement under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). On April 30, 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published Federal Register document 2026-08370, proposing an administrative settlement under CERCLA §122(h)(1) — an "ability-to-pay" cashout mechanism — under which an individual potentially responsible party agreed to pay $100,000 toward EPA's response costs in exchange for a covenant not to sue.

This was an EPA administrative settlement, not a court verdict. No judge, jury, or docket is involved; a §122(h)(1) settlement is negotiated administratively and requires no court approval. The action recovers a portion of the government's environmental cleanup costs — it is unrelated to, and has no effect on, any individual's right to pursue compensation for mesothelioma or other asbestos-related disease through the tort system or asbestos bankruptcy trusts.

This page is educational and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a licensed Oklahoma attorney for case-specific guidance. The CERCLA settlement discussed here resolves EPA's environmental cost-recovery claims only — it does not compensate personal-injury victims, nor does it release any tort or workers' compensation claim.

At a Glance

• The site is a former B.F. Goodrich tire/rubber plant in Miami, Oklahoma, operating roughly 1946–1986.
• On April 30, 2026, EPA proposed a CERCLA §122(h)(1) ability-to-pay settlement (Federal Register 2026-08370).
• The settlement is administrative — there is no court verdict, no finding of liability against any corporation, and no courtroom proceeding.
• An individual potentially responsible party agreed to pay $100,000 based on an EPA ability-to-pay (financial incapacity) analysis.
• The settlement recovers environmental cleanup costs for the government; it does not compensate personal-injury victims.
• Asbestos in rubber and friction-product manufacturing is a recognized exposure pathway; all asbestos fiber types are IARC Group 1 carcinogens.
• Oklahoma's statute of limitations for personal-injury mesothelioma claims is two years, with a discovery rule that generally starts the clock at diagnosis.
• CERCLA tort and trust recovery are separate, parallel tracks — a veteran or worker may pursue more than one simultaneously.

Key Facts

Item	Detail
Site address	1000 Goodrich Boulevard, Miami, Ottawa County, Oklahoma 74354
Former operation	B.F. Goodrich tire & rubber manufacturing (~1946–1986)
Federal action	Federal Register doc. 2026-08370 (Notice), published April 30, 2026
Statutory authority	CERCLA §122(h)(1), 42 U.S.C. §9622(h)(1)
Settlement structure	Administrative "ability-to-pay" cashout — $100,000 (individual party)
Court approval	None required (administrative settlement, not a consent decree)
Public comment	30-day window, closed approximately June 1, 2026
Corporate lineage of operator	B.F. Goodrich → Goodrich Corp → United Technologies (2012) → RTX / Collins Aerospace (2020)
Effect on injury claims	None — does not pay victims or release tort claims

What did the April 2026 Federal Register notice propose?

Federal Register document 2026-08370, published by EPA Region 6 on April 30, 2026, is a Notice (not a rule). Its full title is "Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act; Proposed Administrative Settlement Agreement for Recovery of Response Costs; Goodrich Asbestos Superfund Site in Ottawa County, Miami, Oklahoma."

The notice proposed an administrative settlement under which an individual potentially responsible party agreed to pay $100,000 toward EPA's response costs, based on an ability-to-pay (financial incapacity) analysis. It invited written public comment within 30 days of publication — closing on approximately June 1, 2026 — submitted to the EPA Region 6 Docket Clerk in Dallas, Texas. Public comment on a proposed CERCLA settlement is a participation right under 42 U.S.C. §9622(i); any person may comment, not only responsible parties or affected landowners.

A §122(h)(1) notice is not a regulation and carries no force in the Code of Federal Regulations. Once finalized, however, it becomes an enforceable agreement between EPA and the settling party. Critically, no court approval is required — which distinguishes it from a judicial consent decree under §122(d) that a federal court must enter.

What is a CERCLA §122(h)(1) ability-to-pay settlement?

CERCLA §122(h)(1), codified at 42 U.S.C. §9622(h)(1), lets EPA reach an administrative settlement to recover response costs without filing a federal civil action. It is distinct from two other commonly confused tools:

• CERCLA §106 (42 U.S.C. §9606) — EPA can issue a unilateral administrative order compelling cleanup work, with no agreement required.
• CERCLA §107(a) (42 U.S.C. §9607(a)) — EPA (or a private party) can sue in federal court to recover response costs.

An ability-to-pay (ATP) settlement under §122(h)(1) is triggered by a party's demonstrated financial inability to pay its full allocable share — as opposed to a de minimis settlement under §122(g), which is based on a minimal contribution to the contamination. In a cashout structure, the party pays a fixed lump sum (here, $100,000) rather than performing physical cleanup. In exchange, the settling party receives a covenant not to sue for the covered response costs and contribution protection under CERCLA §113(f)(2) (42 U.S.C. §9613(f)(2)), shielding it from contribution claims by other responsible parties.

EPA evaluates ability to pay using established guidance — "Ability to Pay: A Guide for Superfund Settlement" (EPA 540-G-98-008, 1998) and OSWER Directive 9835.15 (2002) — applying the ABEL financial model to corporations and the INDIPAY model to individuals to estimate the maximum a party can pay without being rendered insolvent.

What was the Goodrich Oklahoma plant, and why is asbestos involved?

The site at 1000 Goodrich Boulevard was a B.F. Goodrich tire and rubber manufacturing facility operating from approximately 1946 to 1986 in Miami, the county seat of Ottawa County in northeastern Oklahoma. Rubber and friction-materials manufacturing of that era relied heavily on asbestos for brake linings, gaskets, insulation, and reinforcing compounds. Chrysotile was the dominant fiber in rubber products, while amphibole fibers (amosite, crocidolite) appeared in some friction and brake products. All asbestos fiber types are classified as Group 1 (carcinogenic to humans) by the IARC.

EPA's Superfund administrative record documents the site's investigation and remediation history. Specific milestones — National Priorities List proposal and listing dates, the site's Hazard Ranking System score and EPA site identification number, and any Record of Decision — are maintained in EPA's Superfund Enterprise Management System and administrative record (semspub.epa.gov; cumulis.epa.gov) and should be consulted there for the controlling figures. National Priorities List placement, where it occurs, follows a Hazard Ranking System evaluation under 40 CFR Part 300, Appendix A.

Who is responsible? Corporate lineage and successor liability

The corporate history of the operator runs from the B.F. Goodrich Company (founded 1870, Akron, Ohio) to Goodrich Corporation (renamed 1988, aerospace/defense focus), which United Technologies Corporation (UTC) acquired in 2012 for a reported ~$18.4 billion, after which UTC merged with Raytheon in 2020 to form RTX Corporation, placing the former Goodrich assets in the Collins Aerospace segment. Investor disclosures filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (sec.gov) are the controlling source for any current representation of RTX's asbestos-related CERCLA or tort liabilities.

It is important to be precise: the $100,000 §122(h)(1) settlement described above was reached with an individual potentially responsible party based on ability to pay — it is not a finding of liability against Goodrich Corporation, UTC, or RTX, and it is not a corporate settlement. Corporate successor liability under CERCLA is a separate legal question. Under United States v. Bestfoods, 524 U.S. 51 (1998), a parent corporation is directly liable as an "operator" only if it actually participated in and controlled the facility's operations; mere ownership of a subsidiary does not by itself transfer liability, though liability can pass through mergers and asset acquisitions depending on how a transaction is structured.

How does CERCLA assign and settle cleanup liability?

CERCLA §107(a) defines four categories of potentially responsible parties: current owners/operators, former owners/operators at the time of disposal, "arrangers" who arranged for disposal, and transporters. CERCLA traditionally imposes joint and several liability, though the Supreme Court allowed apportionment where harm is divisible in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. United States, 556 U.S. 599 (2009) — a holding that gives EPA strong incentive to settle, rather than litigate, with a party that has both a small allocable share and limited financial resources.

"Response costs" under CERCLA include both short-term removal costs (40 CFR §300.415) and long-term remedial costs (40 CFR §300.430). An ability-to-pay settlement reflects a negotiated departure from full cost recovery, accepted where demanding full payment would render the settling party insolvent.

What is the regional context in Ottawa County?

The Goodrich site sits in a county with a profound industrial-contamination legacy. Ottawa County is also home to the Tar Creek Superfund Site, listed on the National Priorities List in 1983 — one of the most severely contaminated sites in the United States, driven by lead, cadmium, and zinc from historic Tri-State Mining District operations. Tar Creek is not asbestos-related, but it establishes a regional pattern of cumulative exposure and heightened community health concern.

Ottawa County is home to nine federally recognized tribal nations, including the Quapaw Nation (O-Gah-Pah), the most active tribal stakeholder in the region's CERCLA cleanups. Federal actions affecting tribal lands require government-to-government consultation under CERCLA §104. Under Executive Order 12898 (1994), EPA must address disproportionate environmental burdens on minority and low-income populations during remedy selection; the county's demographics trigger heightened environmental-justice scrutiny. The county overlies the Boone aquifer, a karst limestone formation vulnerable to rapid contaminant transport; the Safe Drinking Water Act regulates asbestos in drinking water at 7 million fibers per liter (40 CFR §141.62).

How does asbestos exposure cause mesothelioma?

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is caused by inhaling asbestos fibers, with a latency period of 20 to 50 years (median ~35 years) between first exposure and diagnosis — meaning workers exposed at the Goodrich facility during its 1946–1986 operation remain at risk today, and some have not yet been diagnosed. All asbestos forms are IARC Group 1 carcinogens, but fiber type matters: the quantitative analysis by Hodgson and Darnton (Annals of Occupational Hygiene, 2000, updated 2022) established that amphibole fibers (amosite, crocidolite) are substantially more potent per fiber-year than chrysotile. Because a former rubber and friction-products plant could involve both fiber classes, fiber-specific analysis is important to causation in any individual case.

Regulatory thresholds have tightened over time. OSHA reduced its asbestos permissible exposure limit from 2.0 fibers/cc to 0.1 fibers/cc in 1994 (29 CFR §1910.1001); workers at the Goodrich plant before 1994 labored under the older, higher standard — potentially exposed to levels that current science deems dangerous while technically compliant at the time. Modern pathologic diagnosis relies on markers including loss of BAP1 expression and serum mesothelin-related peptides (SMRP), with consensus diagnostic guidelines published by Husain et al. in the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine (2018). See Asbestos_Health_Effects for a fuller treatment of asbestos disease.

What does the EPA settlement mean for mesothelioma victims and families?

This is the most important point for affected families to understand:

The EPA's §122(h)(1) ability-to-pay settlement at the Goodrich Asbestos Superfund Site recovers environmental cleanup costs from a responsible party. It does NOT compensate personal-injury victims, it does NOT release any tort claim, and it has NO bearing on any individual's right to sue for mesothelioma or other asbestos-related disease.

The legal tracks are entirely independent:

Track	Purpose	Who benefits	Governed by
CERCLA ATP settlement	Recover EPA cleanup costs	U.S. government / environment	42 U.S.C. §9622(h)(1)
Tort / products liability	Compensate injured individuals	Mesothelioma victims & families	Oklahoma state tort law
§524(g) trust claims	Compensate from bankrupt defendants	Mesothelioma victims & families	11 U.S.C. §524(g), Trust Distribution Procedures

A person may have a claim if they worked at 1000 Goodrich Boulevard between roughly 1946 and 1986 in any capacity, lived near the facility during operations, or had take-home exposure (for example, washing the work clothes of a Goodrich employee). Useful records for establishing exposure include Social Security earnings records, OSHA worker-monitoring records (retained 30 years under 29 CFR §1910.1020), Oklahoma Workers' Compensation Court records, and EPA's public administrative record — which can be requested through semspub.epa.gov or by FOIA to EPA Region 6.

Under Oklahoma Statutes Title 12, §95(A)(3), the statute of limitations for personal-injury mesothelioma claims is two years, applying a discovery rule that generally starts the clock at diagnosis given the long latency. For wrongful death, Title 12 §1053 gives the surviving spouse and children a two-year claim running from the date of death. Oklahoma follows strict products liability under Kirkland v. General Motors Corp., 1974 OK 52, 521 P.2d 1353, and the U.S. Supreme Court addressed the "bare metal" defense in Air & Liquid Systems Corp. v. DeVries, 586 U.S. 374 (2019). See Statute_of_Limitations_by_State for state-by-state deadlines and Treatment_Options for care pathways; Oklahoma patients may seek evaluation at the NCI-designated University of Oklahoma Stephenson Cancer Center.

Are asbestos bankruptcy trusts a separate option?

Yes. Under 11 U.S.C. §524(g), bankrupt asbestos defendants fund personal-injury trusts that pay claims according to Trust Distribution Procedures. Goodrich Corporation itself has not filed for bankruptcy, but many companies whose products were used alongside Goodrich products established trusts — including the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust, the Pneumo Abex and Raytech friction-product trusts, and the Federal-Mogul gasket/packing trust. A worker exposed at the Goodrich Oklahoma facility may have co-exposure claims against several trust defendants in addition to tort claims, and these are entirely separate from the EPA cost-recovery settlement.

Veterans who also served in the U.S. military and were exposed to asbestos in service may have additional avenues; see Veterans_Asbestos_Exposure. The VA claims process is separate from tort litigation and trust claims, and the tracks can proceed simultaneously.

How does the Goodrich site compare to other asbestos Superfund sites?

The most extensively studied asbestos Superfund site in U.S. history is the Libby, Montana site, where vermiculite ore contaminated with amphibole asbestos prompted the largest community health study in Superfund history and, in 2009, the first public-health-emergency declaration in Superfund history. The Libby experience is instructive for any asbestos Superfund cleanup: it demonstrates the importance of community air monitoring during remediation, the value of ATSDR community health assessments, and the realistic multi-decade timelines such cleanups can require. Whether ATSDR has issued a Public Health Assessment for the Goodrich site can be checked at atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the EPA settlement pay mesothelioma victims?

No. The §122(h)(1) ability-to-pay settlement recovers the government's environmental cleanup costs. It does not pay personal-injury victims, does not release any tort claim, and does not affect an individual's right to sue.

Was the Goodrich Oklahoma plant an asbestos exposure source?

The site is a former B.F. Goodrich tire and rubber facility (~1946–1986); rubber and friction-product manufacturing of that era relied on asbestos. EPA's Superfund administrative record documents the site's contamination history. Workers, nearby residents, and take-home contacts may have had exposure.

Can I still sue if EPA settled with a responsible party?

Yes. A CERCLA cost-recovery settlement is an environmental matter between EPA and the responsible party. It has no effect on your separate personal-injury or wrongful-death claim under Oklahoma tort law, or on asbestos trust claims.

What is the Oklahoma statute of limitations for mesothelioma?

Two years for personal-injury claims (Title 12 §95(A)(3)), generally measured from diagnosis under the discovery rule; two years from the date of death for wrongful death (Title 12 §1053). Because deadlines are strict, consult an Oklahoma attorney promptly.

Was Goodrich Corporation or RTX found liable?

No. The settlement was an administrative ability-to-pay agreement with an individual responsible party for $100,000 — not a court verdict and not a finding of corporate liability. Corporate successor liability under CERCLA is a separate legal question governed by cases such as United States v. Bestfoods.

See also

• Superfund
• Asbestos_Trust_Funds
• Secondary_Asbestos_Exposure
• Statute_of_Limitations_by_State
• Asbestos_Health_Effects
• Veterans_Asbestos_Exposure

External Links

• Federal Register doc. 2026-08370 — EPA Region 6 proposed §122(h)(1) settlement notice (primary source).
• U.S. EPA Superfund program — federal cleanup program overview.
• Danziger & De Llano — law firm that maintains reference material on mesothelioma diagnosis, asbestos litigation, and Superfund-related exposure history.