Green Jersey

Critics blast PPG chromium cleanup settlement

Critics of a settlement meant to compel cleanup of a site along Garfield Avenue in Jersey City are wary of its terms and making themselves known during a 30-day public comment period that lasts until April 15. (The next public-comment session: tonight at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 280 Grove St.)

The settlement, announced last month, calls on Pittsburgh-based PPG Industries to remediate soil and sources of chromium pollution at the Garfield Avenue site “as expeditiously as possible with a five-year goal for completion.” It also requires the company to inject $1 million into the city’s Environmental Trust Fund, money that would be used to acquire open space or develop or improve a public park. (Click here to read the settlement.)

In a press release, Attorney General Anne Milgram called it a “major settlement… the culmination of years of intense investigative work and litigation.” Said Acting DEP Commissioner Mark Mauriello, “This settlement will give residents the peace of mind and better quality of life that comes with a cleaner, healthier neighborhood.”

But some of those who have been fighting for cleanup of the site believe otherwise, and worry the settlement doesn’t lay out an actual, time-specific plan.

Joe Morris is an organizer for the Interfaith Community Organization, which, with the Natural Resources Defense Council, filed its own suit against PPG last month.

“We were really hoping that the city’s agreement would put [our lawsuit] out of business,” Morris told the Jersey City Independent. “It looks like it won’t.” He called the settlement “toothless,” saying, “other than a five-year goal, it has no timetable, no sanctions, no penalties.”

The groups maintain the settlement lacks a schedule and isn’t a cleanup plan, but only “a proposed structure for devising a cleanup plan,” NRDC attorney Nancy Marks told the Jersey Journal for a story March 19.

“After 25 years of not cleaning up, there’s nothing in the settlement that shows us the cleanup will actually go forward,” she told the Independent.

Other groups up in arms about the settlement include the Garfield Avenue Chromium Coalition and GRACO, which stands for Garfield, Randolph, Arlington, Clerk, Claremont, Carteret and Ocean.

Earlier this month, GRACO said it would file a lawsuit of its own to expedite cleanup. But an attorney for the group, Stuart Lieberman, told the Independent he was putting the suit on hold for 30 days and would try to work more provisions, such as more extensive medical monitoring of residents near the site, into the settlement during the public comment period.

More: Despite settlement, chromium concerns — and lawsuits — continue (Jersey City Independent)