Honeywell Tries To Wiggle Out Of Court-Ordered Clean-Up

 

Honeywell International has put into motion a bold, last-ditch attempt to weasel out of half of its $400 million cleanup responsibility of its chromium-contaminated site on the Hackensack River in Jersey City. Hackensack Riverkeeper won against Honeywell International two years ago when the corporation was ordered by a federal court to clean up 34 acres of land contaminated with chromium waste. Despite bringing a high-powered legal team to bear, Honeywell lost its final appeal when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case.

Throughout the court proceedings, a great weight was given to the expert testimony of Kirk Brown, a former Texas A&M professor and head of a Texas-based environmental consulting firm. During his testimony, Brown staunchly maintained that the only way to properly remediate the site was to completely excavate the contamination. So with all preliminary work done and the law firmly on the side of the environment, the excavation was due to begin on November 1, 2005 until …

On October 13, Brown, who is now on Honeywell’s payroll, announced in court papers and in the media that he had “changed his mind” about the need for a complete cleanup. According to Brown, only about half of the estimated 1.5 million tons of waste needed to be removed and the rest could be simply capped in place!

According to published news reports, this is the first time that an expert witness has, in effect, switched sides to such a degree. Taken by surprise, Federal District Judge Dennis Cavanaugh has undertaken an unprecedented review of the case and his decision. Needless to say, the Judge is not happy and neither are we at Hackensack Riverkeeper.

The Supreme Court is the court of last resort and the final arbiter within our American society. If you lose at the Supreme Court, then you lose. That's the deal. From our perspective, Honeywell is attempting to skirt the Constitution in a last-ditch attempt to weasel out of at least half of their reported $400 million cleanup responsibility. Despite all that's going on, we remain confident that justice–and the Hackensack River–will win the day.