U.S. Water News Online
MUSKEGON, Mich. -- A federal judge has ruled that a company that once owned the polluted site of a former chemical plant does not have to pay any of the $100 million estimated cost of cleaning up the Superfund site.
The recent decision by U.S. District Judge Douglas W. Hillman in Grand Rapids is a major victory for Bestfoods Baking Co. and a defeat for the federal government and the state of Michigan, The Muskegon Chronicle reported.
``We're disappointed,'' said Larry Johnson, Chicago-based associate regional counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He said no decision had been made on whether to file an appeal by the Jan. 8 filing deadline.
Also disappointed was Kathy Cavanaugh, a Michigan assistant attorney general.
``We were hoping that (Hillman) would find them liable and we thought the facts were there to find them liable,'' she said.
Since 1989, the two governments have collaborated on a lawsuit that seeks to recoup the cleanup costs from the 197-acre site's past and present corporate owners.
Various companies, including Ott Chemical Co. and Story Chemical Co., occupied the site in Muskegon County's Dalton Township between 1957 and 1977, when Story abandoned it, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
During that period, waste water from the plant was directed into seepage lagoons, resulting in extensive contamination of groundwater and soil. Unprotected tanks of phosgene gas were left onsite, as were 8,700 drums of lagoon sludge.
Phosgene, used as a chemical weapon in World War II, is a product of the breakdown of chloroform. Exposure to humans can damage the central nervous system.
Bestfoods, based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., was called CPC International Inc. when it bought Ott in 1965 and ran it as a wholly owned subsidiary until 1972. The site was contaminated with chemical wastes from the time production began in 1957 until at least 1972, according to court documents.
But in his 52-page decision released Nov. 9, Hillman ruled that Bestfoods is not responsible for any of that contamination. He said the governments failed to prove that the parent company -- as opposed to its subsidiary, Ott -- actually operated the plant and controlled its waste-disposal practices.
Hillman's opinion reverses an order that he issued in 1991 holding Bestfoods liable for much of the site's cleanup costs. In a landmark 1998 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out the 1991 decision and remanded the case back to Hillman for a retrial.
The high court devised stricter standards for deciding whether a parent corporation is responsible for contamination caused by its subsidiary, and ordered Hillman to use those standards in deciding the Ott case.
In effect, he found that the New Jersey parent company did not dictate day-to-day operations at the facility, even though it helped devise overall policy for Ott.
``We feel ... that the judge applied the law properly as we see it,'' said Grand Rapids lawyer Michael Smith, representing the company. ``Bestfoods did not operate the site under the Supreme Court standard.''
The decision leaves only taxpayers -- and none of the original property owners -- responsible for funding the costly cleanup.
The site's current owner, Aerojet General Corp. of Rancho Cordova, Calif., signed a consent decree last year with the government relieving it of responsibility. It hopes to deed clean portions of the site to Muskegon County for redevelopment.
Return to the U.S. Water News Archives page Or Return to the U.S. Water News Homepage
Editor@uswaternews.com
*Your Name:
*Your Email:
*Friend's Email:
Use a comma to separate e-mail addresses:
*Your Comments:
Hi, I thought you might like to read this article.
*Required Fields