TRENTON — A second major chemical company must help pay for cleaning the lower Passaic River, which was polluted decades ago by a Newark pesticide manufacturing plant, a state Superior Court judge has ruled. The company, Tierra Solutions Inc., is liable for past and future cleanup costs associated with pollution caused by the former Diamond Alkali/Diamond Shamrock Chemicals Corp....
A view of the Passaic River in Paterson. A second chemical company is held liable to cover cleanup costs, as ruled by a Superior Court judge today. TRENTON — A second major chemical company must help pay for cleaning the lower Passaic River, which was polluted decades ago by a Newark pesticide manufacturing plant, a state Superior Court judge has ruled.
The company, Tierra Solutions Inc., is liable for past and future cleanup costs associated with pollution caused by the former Diamond Alkali/Diamond Shamrock Chemicals Corp. plant on Lister Avenue, which it currently owns, Judge Sebastian Lombardi ruled last month.
In July, Occidental Chemical Corp. was held liable for its portion of the cleanup and removal of contaminated sediment. But the judge ruled Maxus Energy Corp., which sold the plant to Occidental in 1986, must pay the cost of the cleanup associated with Occidental.
The plant was closed before Occidental bought Diamond Shamrock from Maxus Energy.
The cost of the cleanup for each company has not yet been determined.
Diamond manufactured pesticides and herbicides from 1951 to 1969, polluting the river with an extremely toxic form of dioxin left over from the production of the Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the United States in Vietnam, DDT and other chemicals.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency, which is overseeing the river’s restoration, estimates it will cost $1 billion to $4 billion to clean up the most heavily polluted eight-mile portion of the waterway nearest to the plant.
In an agreement separate from the state’s lawsuit, the EPA in 2008 reached an agreement with Occidental and Tierra Solutions to spend $45 million removing 200,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment from the river in two phases.
Tierra Solutions will soon begin removing 40,000 cubic yards of the most contaminated sediment adjacent to the former pesticide plant. Tierra also plans to remove an additional 160,000 cubic yards.
Previous coverage:
• N.J. chemical company must help pay for Passaic River cleanup, judge rules
• As the river suffered, firms changed hands
• Toxic Hudson County sites to be cleaned up thanks to $15 million settlement
• EPA chief tours N.J. two worst Superfund sites in Newark, Pompton Lakes