The Passaic River needs your help

The EPA wants New Jersey taxpayers to pay for the clean-up of the Passaic River.

We think that's a bad deal.

In 2022, OxyChem made a series of offers to the EPA to design and implement EPA’s approach to clean up the river. Work would have begun immediately and cost taxpayers nothing.

The EPA ignored us. In December, the EPA and Department of Justice asked a federal court to approve its proposed settlement agreement with 85 companies the EPA recognizes polluted the Passaic River over the last 150 years.

If approved, the agreement would let those companies off the hook for just $150 million. Not one penny would actually go to clean-up of the river. This means nearly all the $1.82 billion clean-up cost is pinned on a handful of parties, including New Jersey communities.

That’s wrong.

Read OxyChem’s opposition to the proposed settlement here.

How EPA’s settlement affects New Jersey.

The EPA estimates the total cost for the clean-up of the Passaic River to be $1.82 billion, yet its proposed settlement doesn’t require any polluter to clean up anything.

The result:

New Jersey taxpayers could be forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to cover the settling companies’ share of the clean-up.
The settling companies write a check and walk away.
Clean-up of the Passaic River will be further delayed.
Companies will be discouraged from doing the right thing for future clean-ups.

The problem in numbers.

OxyChem has been leading the effort to remedy and revitalize the Passaic River even though OxyChem itself did not cause the pollution. There is still a lot of work to be done. Here’s how the numbers break down.

150 years

Length of time industries have been polluting the river

100+

Companies responsible for polluting the Passaic River

$1.82 billion

Approximate cost to clean up the Passai River

42 towns

On the hook if the EPA's settlement is approved

8.3 miles

Clean-up plan already developed by OxyChem

9 miles

Remaining portion of the river where no clean-up work is being performed, despite OxyChem's January & June 2022 offers to do so

What others are saying

Shielding companies from contributing their fair share of a Superfund cleanup is not in the public interest. Only OxyChem has offered to design and sequentially implement the EPA's selected remedies for the river.

Charles F. Weiss

Senior Vice President, OxyChem, in NJSpotlightNews.org, Oct. 19, 2022

Until the 1970s, it was common practice to discharge wastewater into the river. And, so, fast-forward to today, EPA has identified over a hundred industrial facilities potentially responsible for sending contamination into the river.

Alice Yeh

EPA Remedial Project Manager for lower 8.3 miles of the Passaic River (May 17, 2024 "Passaic River Superfund Site Public Meeting," Portuguese Sports Club, Newark, New Jersey).

I can say right off the top that the settlement seems very low, particularly in light of the number of parties involved and the overall cost of the work.

Michele Langa

Staff Attorney, NYNJ Baykeeper, as quoted in NothJersey.com, Dec. 20, 2022

Resources

Court Faces Early Test On Effects Of High Court Rulings On CERCLA Deals

via InsideEPA.com

InsideEPA reports on the New Jersey federal court grappling with the implications of recent Supreme Court rulings on administrative law as it reviews a contested $150 million Superfund settlement for the Diamond Alkali site.

Read article Read article

Op-ed: It’s time for EPA to end settlement secrecy over Passaic River cleanup

via njspotlightnews.org

An Op-ed authored by Robert Peterson on September 20th covering inconsistencies with EPA’s proposed settlement with the companies that polluted the Passaic River.

Read article Read article