Environmental Groups Ready to Sue over Nation’s Worst Dioxin Dump

Demand that companies accept responsibility and clean up Newark Bay

 

By Hugh M. Carola

On Nov. 20, 2003 Hackensack Riverkeeper Inc, NY/NJ Baykeeper, and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a Notice of Intent to sue Occidental Chemical Corporation and Tierra Solutions for an imminent and substantial endangerment to human health and the environment.  The charge stems from what the groups say may be the single worst case of dioxin pollution ever to occur in the United States. Dioxins are known to cause cancer, diabetes, liver and skin damage, neurological and immune damage, and to disrupt the endocrine system.

The three environmental groups demand that the companies pay for an independent environmental study and clean-up of Newark Bay. This resource, once home to abundant, healthy fish and crabs, is now contaminated from 40 years of runoff and dumping from the production of the pesticide DDT and the herbicide Agent Orange by Occidental’s predecessor, Diamond Shamrock. NRDC and the Rutgers University’s Environmental Law Clinic represent the environmental organizations.

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) Commissioner Bradley Campbell said he is considering joining Hackensack Riverkeeper,  NY/NJ Baykeeper and NRDC in the suit. NJDEP has calculated that cancer risk levels for people eating blue crabs from Newark Bay could be as much as a million times what government agencies typically consider an acceptable level for an environmental contaminant. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) believes that concentrations of dioxin recorded in Passaic River and Newark Bay blue crabs may be the highest ever discovered in aquatic animals – the internal organs of one crab contained six times the level of 2,3,7,8-TCDD levels known to kill guinea pigs in lab tests. New Jersey has gone so far as to make it illegal to take these crabs from the Newark Bay Complex.

NJDEP also reported that many crabbers do not understand or are not taking posted health warnings seriously, and are continuing to eat these contaminated animals for economic and/or cultural reasons. “Unfortunately, these toxic crabs look fine,” said Captain Bill Sheehan, executive director, Hackensack Riverkeeper. “Their appearance, smell and taste doesn’t reflect the extreme danger from eating them.”

“Despite the ban, you regularly find people fishing off bulkheads and harvesting crabs from Newark Bay,” said NY/NJ Baykeeper Andrew Willner. “These fishermen take poisoned crabs home and feed them to their families.”

The Newark facility that Occidental operated is responsible for discharging 2,3,7,8-TCDD, the most toxic form of dioxin, into the lower Passaic River. Much of the toxin, over time, flowed downstream poisoning Newark Bay. This toxic chemical has penetrated the food web and can be found in fish beyond Newark Bay. Government monitoring data indicate that fish, crabs, lobster and other marine life in the region, particularly in the waters adjacent to communities in Bayonne and Staten Island, are contaminated with unusually high amounts of 2,3,7,8-TCDD.

The groups will sue under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the federal statute that empowers citizens to ask the courts to stop imminent and substantial endangerments to human health and the environment. “It is time to penalize the polluter, not punish the people who are simply trying to fish and otherwise use a public resource,” said Jennifer Danis, NRDC staff attorney. On November 20, 2003, the groups gave Occidental the required 90 days of notice of their intent to go forward with litigation to protect public health and the environment.

For generations, families like this one have come to the River to catch dinner for the week. It's been dangerous since the 1960's; now it's illegal.

“The toxic legacy of Diamond Shamrock endures in our coastal waters and in the animals that call these waters home,” said Willner.“The toxic legacy of Diamond Shamrock endures in our coastal waters and in the animals that call these waters home,” said Willner. Although government agencies have recently announced initiatives to study contamination on the Passaic River, neither of these efforts will address Newark Bay or other nearby contaminated waters. “Our lawsuit is being filed on behalf of the people whose waterways have been poisoned by large corporations that took decades worth of profits and then moved on.”