Atlantic Richfield Co. and DuPont Co. (DD) agreed to pay an estimated $26 million in a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Indiana for a cleanup of lead and arsenic contamination in parts of an East Chicago, Ind., neighborhood.

According to the EPA and the Justice Department, yards in the neighborhood were contaminated through industrial operations from at least the early 1900s through 1985. Lead smelting and refining, as well as other manufacturing processes that used lead and arsenic, were located on and near the area that came to be known as the Calumet neighborhood of East Chicago.

Atlantic Richfield and DuPont will pay for the EPA's work and will be responsible for transporting the contaminated soil out of the neighborhood and properly disposing of it.

Spokesmen for the companies couldn't immediately be reached to comment.

In the consent decree, the defendants didn't admit any liability tied to the allegations and didn't acknowledge the release or threatened release of hazardous substances at or from the site constitutes an imminent and substantial endangerment to the public or the environment.

Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com

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