Sunday, October 12, 2014

Environmental lawsuit settlements: For $5 the state gets in tis case, it will spend less then $1 on remediation.



What to do with polluted Passaic? State settlement, EPA plans scrutinized


For every five dollars the state gets from polluters on the hook for the poisoning of the Passaic River, it will spend less than a dollar patching it up.
The rest will go toward legal bills, refunding the state for past costs and sending hundreds of millions to the state's general fund.
Three lawsuits taken on by the state against parties deemed responsible for polluting the river are expected to bring in $355.4 million, if the most recent agreement is approved by a judge, but the state has set aside just $67 million for "natural resource restoration" projects.
"This is effectively robbing from the communities that live along the river, and live everyday with the legacy of this," Rep. Bill Pascrell told lawmakers, engineers and river advocates last week at a session of the Passaic River Symposium, hosted by Montclair State University."This is a big chunk of change that could help us clean up this river."

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