The City of Philadelphia has agreed to pay $8.4 million in a lawsuit settlement toward the federal government’s cleanup of the Clearview Landfill, a Superfund site that contaminated a part of Delaware County and parts of the Eastwick section of Southwest Philly, writes Frank Kummer for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The landfill was an unlicensed dump for commercial, industrial, institutional, and municipal waste since the early 1950s. Because Philadelphia had dumped municipal waste, incinerator ash, and residue at the landfill, the federal government considered the city liable for contamination. The site closed in the 1970s.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched a cleanup in 2011 and is now in final cleanup, estimated to cost $76.2 million.

The site consists of the Clearview and Folcroft landfills. The Folcroft Landfill is two miles downstream on Darby Creek and within the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum.

The city’s settlement only applies to the Clearview Landfill, which touches Delaware County.

Once the landfill is capped, a biking and hiking trail will run across one side of the site, connecting with the East Coast Greenway. The trail will run through the Heinz refuge and grounds of Philadelphia International Airport.

Read more about the landfill cleanup here.

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