Ford Used Native NJ Lands As 'Toxic Waste Dump,' Covered Up Damages: State's Lawsuit

RINGWOOD, NJ — When Ford first opened Mahwah Assembly in 1955, it became the largest auto-assembly plant in the country. But decades after the plant closed, the hazardous waste the automaker dumped on natural lands continues to harm hundreds of acres and the people who live there, according to a lawsuit the state filed Thursday.

About a half-mile wide and 1.5 miles long, Ringwood Mines is home to rugged forests, vegetation, several endangered and threatened species and about 200 people. Most of the residents on the land near the New York border are members of the Ramapough Lenape Nation, according to the lawsuit the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection filed Thursday against Ford.

Members of the Tribe have led a subsistence lifestyle for generations, relying on hunting, fishing, foraging and farming as sources of food and medicine, according to the state's complaint. The lifestyle holds deep cultural and spiritual significance for the Ramapough Lenape Nation, constituting part of their heritage.

Iron mining on the site ended in the early 1900s, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The U.S. government purchased the site property in the 1930s, before a series of owners purchased it. Ringwood Realty — a Ford subsidiary — owned the property from 1965-74, the EPA says.

The Ford subsidiary bought it for the express purpose of using it as a landfill for disposing hazardous waste from the Mahwah plant, the lawsuit says. The state closed the landfill in 1976 — two years after Ford divested itself of the property.

"In effect, Ford turned Ringwood Mines into a toxic waste dump," the lawsuit says.

Between 1967 and 1974, Ford disposed of thousands of tons of toxic paint sludge in the forests and on the grounds of Ringwood Mines, along with its abandoned mineshafts and pits, according to the state's complaint. The company also dumped various non-liquid pollutants and waste stored in drums, state officials said.

A Ford spokesperson told Patch the following via email:

"We understand this has affected the community and have worked cooperatively with the Borough of Ringwood, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency while implementing the remediation plan stipulated by the EPA. We have only just received the NJDEP's claims therefore we can’t provide a further comment until we understand them better."

The spokesperson also said that Ford "takes its environmental responsibility seriously and has shown that through our actions to address issues in Upper Ringwood."

State officials don't see it that way, claiming in the lawsuit that the automaker continues to conceal the full extent of the contamination in order to "escape responsibility for the clean-up of and liability for the contamination of Ringwood Mines."

Ford internal memoranda as far back as the early 1970s showed the automaker's intent to divest itself from Ringwood Mines and nearby locations, while concealing the true extent of the contamination to its prospective owners, according to a 2005 article from The Record cited in the lawsuit.

In 1970, Ringwood Realty donated 290 acres of the land and sold a portion of the property to the Public Service Electric and Gas Company the same year. Three years later, the Ford subsidiary donated 109 acres to the state DEP, which added it to Ringwood State Park. Ringwood Realty donated 35 acres to a nonprofit that same year.

By 1974 — six years before the Mahwah plant's closure — Ringwood Realty no longer owned any land at Ringwood Mines. The EPA listed the property on its National Priorities List — sites in the U.S. most threatened by hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants — in 1983. The agency deleted the site from the list in 1994, following Ford's removal of about 8,300 cubic yards of paint sludge and soil, the state says.

But the DEP discovered more pockets of paint sludge on the site in 1995, 1998 and 2004. The EPA moved Ringwood Mines back to its National Priorities List in 2006. Environmental officials also found at least 20 properties with lead-contaminated soils or paint sludge that needed removal from 2010-11, the lawsuit says.

Environmental impacts of Ford's dumping include chemicals getting into groundwater and surface waters, damage to 6.2 acres of wetlands that provide habitats for threatened and endangered species, a decline in air quality, and the closure of the Hasenclever Iron Trail from 2005-20 after the discovery of paint sludge on it, according to the state's complaint.

Ford has removed more than 53,500 tons of paint sludge and associated soil from the site since December 2004, the lawsuit says. While remediation efforts continue, hazardous substances continue to contaminate natural resources around Ringwood Mines.

The state DEP seeks unspecified compensation for lost natural resources, along with punitive damages and penalties from Ford.

"No matter our race, income, or ancestry, every resident of the State of New Jersey is entitled to the good care and enjoyment of our natural, historic, and cultural resources," said NJDEP Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette. "When those resources are damaged by polluters who knew better and could do better, the State has a duty to step in on behalf of our residents and their resources to demand accountability."