New Jersey filed a lawsuit against Ford Motor Co. on Thursday seeking millions of dollars in damages for widespread pollution dumped more than 50 years ago in Upper Ringwood next to a neighborhood that has been home to generations of Native Americans.
It is the latest action taken at a Superfund site with a troubled history of mismanagement and questionable decisions.
The lawsuit — known as a “natural resource damage” claim — seeks money to restore tainted soil, groundwater and wetlands, and to compensate the public for its loss of those resources.
Acting Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced the lawsuit at a news conference in Ringwood.
The pollution dates to 1967 when contractors dumped paint sludge produced at the Ford auto plant in Mahwah at three sites in Upper Ringwood where many members of the Ramapough tribe have lived for generations.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency declared the site clean and took it off the Superfund list of the nation’s worst toxic sites in 1994. But a 2005 series by The Record showed there was still an enormous amount of paint sludge in the area, which prompted the EPA to relist it as a Superfund site — the first time that had ever happened in the program’s three decades.
The EPA had pledged to adequately clean up the site and required Ford to remove more than 50,000 tons of tainted soil from a dumping ground called the O’Connor Disposal Area.
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But the EPA reversed course in 2015 and said it would allow the site to instead be paved over, with the pollution remaining beneath in perpetuity. The borough and Ford had lobbied EPA to allow a new recycling center to be built at the site, which costs significantly less than excavation. The move enraged many residents. An $18 million project to cap and contain polluted soil began last year.
O’Connor and two other dumping grounds at the site — Cannon Mine Pit and Peters Mine Pit — contain soil contaminated with lead, benzene, 1,4-dioxane and other hazardous substances that have been linked to everything from respiratory diseases to cancer. Ramapoughs have reported serious illnesses and early deaths, which they contend are the result of exposure to pollution at the site.
Another plan by EPA to pump compounds underground to treat contaminated water at the site also faced considerable backlash.
Among the critics was the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission, owner of the nearby Wanaque Reservoir. It pushed for a pump-and-treat system, saying it would provide better protection for drinking water that is supplied to as many as 3.5 million New Jerseyans .
Platkin’s predecessor, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, revived the use of natural resource damage lawsuits after a lull under the Christie administration. Recent lawsuits have targeted some of the biggest corporate names including DuPont for pollution in Pompton Lakes and ExxonMobil for contaminating land in Gloucester County.
This story will be updated.
Scott Fallon has covered the COVID-19 pandemic since its onset in March 2020. To get unlimited access to the latest news about the pandemic’s impact on New Jersey, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: fallon@northjersey.com
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