NJ Sues Over Riverfront Environmental Contamination

NEW JERSEY – A pair of lawsuits have been filed to compel the clean-up of contamination and recover Natural Resource Damages (NRDs) against two companies operating in New Jersey, according to Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.

The first suit is against Solvay Specialty Polymers USA, LLC and Arkema Inc., two companies responsible for widespread contamination from toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) emanating from a Gloucester County facility, which has contaminated public drinking water in the region.

“As we said at the outset of the Murphy Administration, the days of free passes and soft landings for polluters in New Jersey are over,” said Grewal. “The corporations we’re suing knew full well the potential harms they were inflicting on our environment, but chose to forge ahead anyway. When companies disregard the laws meant to protect our environment, they can expect to pay.”

The second lawsuit, against Honeywell International, Inc., seeks to restore natural resources damaged by contamination from the Quanta Resources Superfund Site along the Hudson River in Edgewater, Bergen County.

New Jersey has led the nation in environmental and public health research and regulation to protect the state’s residents from the harmful effects of PFAS chemicals like those manufactured at the Solvay site in West Deptford. PFAS substances – also called “forever chemicals”— are manmade substances desired for their ability to repel water, oil and fire, and were commonly used to make products like Teflon and Scotchgard. Highly resistant to environmental degradation and known to accumulate in the human body, PFAS are associated with serious adverse health effects such as cancer. The chemicals are also known to negatively impact the immune system and decrease vaccine response.

Despite DEP’s urging, for years Solvay has been slow to take responsibility for the PFAS contamination it has spread throughout the region. With respect to serious public health concerns, like impacts to public drinking water, Solvay has been disregarding the damage and risks to the public.

The complaint seeks to compel Solvay to promptly and thoroughly investigate and remediate the extent of its pollution, protect drinking water sources, and restore natural resources damaged by the hazardous substances that Solvay continues to release into the state’s environment, including into our air, surface water, and groundwater, and to publicly disclose information regarding the health and environmental impacts of its operations.

In addition to PFAS contamination, the complaint alleges that Solvay and prior owner Arkema, Inc. are responsible for contamination from such “conventional” pollutants as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and numerous metals at the property and into the Delaware River.

The State’s second filing today seeks to hold Honeywell, as the survivor corporation to various predecessor companies that ran industrial operations, accountable for discharges of vast quantities of contaminants into the ground and water at and near a site now known as the Quanta property along the Hudson River in Edgewater.

Among other things, the complaint seeks the award of clean-up costs to the State and compensation for NRDs resulting from decades of coal tar processing operations at the 15-acre site, as well as the manufacture of paving and roofing materials, and use of the site for waste oil storage and recycling. All operations were halted at the Quanta property in 1981.

Under the law, NRDs are defined as damages for injury to, destruction of, loss of, or loss of value of natural resources. NRDs usually include the costs incurred to assess specific natural resource damage done. Under the law, the State is trustee for all natural resources, which in New Jersey are seen as surface and ground water, sediments, wetlands, and biota (living creatures other than humans).

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