Hackensack Riverkeeper
231 Main Street
Hackensack, NJ 07601
201-968-0808
201-968-0336 (FAX)
Info@HackensackRiverkeeper.org
www.HackensackRiverkeeper.org

February 22, 2005

FOR  IMMEDIATE  RELEASE

Contact: Captain Bill Sheehan

Honeywell International Loses Appeal To Allow Pollution To Remain

Third Circuit Court of Appeals upholds 2003 ruling and $400 million cleanup order

Philadelphia, PA - In a stunning, precedent-setting decision on Friday, February 18, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit handed Honeywell International a stinging defeat. The three-judge panel let stand federal Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh’s 2003 ruling that held Honeywell responsible for removing chromium contamination from a 34-acre tract of land the transnational corporation owns on the banks of the Hackensack River in Jersey City.

“We had a good case two years ago, we got a landmark ruling from Judge Cavanaugh and we fully expected it to be upheld on appeal,” said Captain Bill Sheehan, Hackensack Riverkeeper’s executive director. “What we didn’t expect was the slam-dunk we got from the appellate court.”

The earlier ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought against Honeywell by Hackensack Riverkeeper and the Jersey City-based Interfaith Community Organization (ICO). The plaintiffs successfully argued that the health and safety of Society Hill condominium residents were in danger as long as the contamination was allowed to remain. The suit was prompted by over twenty years of foot-dragging on the part of the corporation, which had maintained that simply capping the contamination was sufficient and that its removal was unnecessary.

“Enough time has been spent in the history of this matter, and the time for a cleanup has come,” said Judge Franklin Van Antwerpen, who authored the ruling.

From 1895 through 1954, the Mutual Chemical Company of America operated a chromate chemical plant on the site. In addition to its refined products, the company also produced approximately 1.5 million tons of toxic waste containing hexavalent chromium (well-known to millions because of the film Erin Brockovitch) that was dumped onsite. In 1954, Mutual sold the property to the Allied Corporation (later AlliedSignal, Inc.). Honeywell took title to the site (and assumed its liabilities) after its merger with AlliedSignal.

According to court records, while all that was going on, a known human carcinogen was freely leaching into the Hackensack River. A 1982 NJ Department of Environmental Protection report cited a “green stream” and “yellowish-green plumes” in surface water on the property. Even a Honeywell official noted at the time “there’s something terribly not right with the site” where the toxic waste lies twenty feet deep in some places.

It its appeal, Honeywell attempted to prove that the District Court:
  • Erred in granting Hackensack Riverkeeper and the ICO standing to sue them,
  • Was wrong to determine that the site provided an “imminent and substantial endangerment”, and
  • Overstepped its bounds in ordering a complete cleanup of the site.
The justices responded with twenty-three pages’ worth of point-by-point refutations backed by case law citations spanning thirty-one years before concluding, “Accordingly, the District Court ruling will be affirmed.”

As in the previous litigation, the Washington DC-based law firm of Terris, Pravlik and Milian represented the plaintiffs. This time however, partners Bruce Terris and Kathleen L. Milian took the lead role themselves with Terris arguing their case before the Appeals Court.

“Everyone knows that when you buy a house you buy it ‘as is’ and if you wind up with a problem like a leaky oil tank, you’re liable for its cleanup,” explained Captain Sheehan. “What’s fair for John & Jane Q. Public and their underground tank should be fair enough for Honeywell and its 1.5 million tons of chromium waste.”

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