Author: jeff

State authorities on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the Ford Motor Company for dumping automobile paint sludge in former iron mines and on Native American land in Ringwood, marking another chapter in what has become more than half a century of corporate and government failures to clean up harmful toxic waste.

The Ringwood mine area is the only contaminated site in the United States to be placed on the federal Superfund list twice. It also sits precariously close to a reservoir that supplies drinking water to millions of New Jerseyans.

Now, the state Department of Environmental Protection is suing in state Superior Court for natural resource damages — a form of compensation that seeks to fund restoration projects to bring contaminated land as close to its pre-pollution state as possible.

The mine area is home to about 200 residents, including many members of the state-recognized Ramapough Lenape Nation, who for decades have complained of cancers, respiratory diseases, skin ailments and other health problems.

On Thursday, some of them grew emotional describing the loss of family members and what was once fertile land for hunting, fishing and foraging. Powerful people had stood behind lecterns and made promises before, only for them to fail to come to fruition.

“What’s to say, when you’re out of office, the next people aren’t going to say, ‘Oh, throw it to the back of the line’ because there are so many people ahead of us?” Marcey Langhorn, a member of the tribe’s Turtle Clan, asked acting Attorney General Matthew Platkin and DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette during a press conference at Ringwood State Park.

“For me, to trust the state is very hard.”

A spokeswoman for Ford said the company “takes its environmental responsibility seriously.”

“We understand this has affected the community and have worked cooperatively with (local, state and federal…

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Ford Motor Company is being sued by New Jersey state officials for contaminating hundreds of acres of land, with a large population of Ramapough Lenape people, that the company used for the waste disposal for its largest assembly plant that was built in 1955.

The lawsuit accuses the automobile company of contaminating the water, soil, groundwater, vegetation, and the air in the area in Ringwood, New Jersey, as well as selling part of the land to the state without disclosing to them the damage that they had caused there.

The lawsuit is pursuing action on eight counts, including negligence and trespassing.

According to the lawsuit, in 1965, Ford purchased 400 acres of Ringwood Mines for the purpose of disposing of its waste from the automobile plant built a decade previously.

The Ringwood Mines area has nearly 50 residential units and about 200 residents.

Starting 1967, for seven years the company used the space to throw away “tons of toxic paint sludge and drummed waste and other non-liquid hazardous waste”.

Meanwhile, around 1970, the company sold off parts of the land to numerous entities including a non-profit and other government institutions, without disclosing the full extent of the damage they had caused on the land.

“Bottom line is that Ford demonstrated little to no regard for the environment,” said the acting attorney general, Matt Platkin, when announcing the lawsuit on Thursday.

“They turned a blind eye to the risks that their actions have imposed on the lives of 200 residents who live here, which includes Native Americans who are historically and disproportionately exposed to environmental harms,” he said, according to a video of the announcement shared on Facebook.

Vincent Mann, chief of the Ramapough Lenape Nation’s Turtle Clan, and New Jersey’s commissioner of environmental protection, Shawn M LaTourette, were also present at the announcement.

“Today is one…

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Three New Jersey governmental agencies/officials filed suit against the Ford Motor Company (Ford) in the Superior Court of New Jersey-Bergen County on Thursday claiming that Ford is liable under New Jersey environmental statues and common law for pollution at its 500-acre site known as Ringwood Mines that Ford used to dump waste from its Mahwah, New Jersey, assembly plant from 1967 to 1974.

The three plaintiffs are: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP); The Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection; and The Administrator of the New Jersey Spill Compensation Fund (Administrator). As noted in the complaint, Ford Motor Company is sued “individually and as successor” to other Ford-related entities, all defined as “Ford.”

According to the complaint, the Ringwood Mines site is “encompassed by the historic homeland of the Ramapough Lenape Nation (the ‘Tribe’) Turtle Clan, a Native American tribe recognized by the State of New Jersey.” The plaintiffs state that many of the approximately 200 residents living within the Ringwood Mines are members of the Tribe. The plaintiffs note that the “cultural and spiritual traditions of the Ramampough Lenape Nation are inextricably interconnected with the land” and members of the Tribe rely on the land for food and medicine.

As a result of the purported pollution, harmful substances like arsenic and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were found at the site affecting the environment including the “groundwater and surface water, sediments, wetlands, soils, air, and biota.”

The plaintiffs allege a long history of state and federal regulatory action and remediation efforts relating to the site. In particular, the plaintiffs note that the site was placed on the CERCLA “National Priorities List” in 1983, but removed in 1994 “based on Ford’s representation that Ringwood Mines had been adequately remediated.” Notwithstanding that, the plaintiffs further allege…

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