2 More Companies Contaminated Your NJ Water: DEP

NEW JERSEY – Authorities say they're going after two more companies that are allegedly responsible for contaminating your water. The action follows New Jersey officials' attempts to sanction five other companies responsible for similar pollution.

Authorities announced this week that they've filed two more lawsuits, one against The Sherwin Williams Company and the other against Handy & Harman Electronic Materials Corp., claiming they allegedly polluted lakes, creeks or local drinking water supplies.

At one point in the Sherwin Williams plant’s history, the complaint notes, locals in and around Gibbsboro, Voorhees and Lindenwold rechristened Hilliards Creek as “Rainbow Creek,” authorities said. The water would take on different colors “depending on the color of the paint that Sherwin Williams was manufacturing and/or disposing of on a given day.”

This week's announcement comes just as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it's investigating "extensive contamination" of drinking water at a number of sites across the state.

The state Department of Environmental Protection had already identified five other companies it says are responsible for the "extensive contamination" and directing them to fund millions of dollars in assessment and cleanup efforts, officials said.

Read more: CDC Review Of 'Extensive Contamination' Of Your NJ Water

One of the new cases was outlined in a complaint filed against Sherwin Williams, and it arises out of the company’s operations at sites in Gibbsboro, Voorhees Township and Lindenwold in Camden County, according to a joint release from Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Catherine R. McCabe.

The state alleges that Sherwin Williams manufactured oil-based paints, lacquers and varnishes, and in the process discharged industrial wastes into the ground, into nearby Hilliards Creek and into other surrounding creeks and lakes.

Another complaint against Handy & Harman arises out of its operations of an etching and surfacing facility in Montvale in Bergen County in the 1980s, according to the release.

During Handy & Harman’s ownership, the complaint alleges that hazardous substances – including the chemical TCE or trichloroethylene – were discharged on the property, resulting in the contamination of groundwater and the closure of nearby drinking water wells, according to the release.

Grewal and McCabe said the lawsuits are part of the Murphy administration's efforts to revitalize New Jersey’s environmental enforcement program.

After eight years in which the state did not file any new "natural resource damage" actions, the state has now filed 12 such cases in two years, officials said. In 2019 alone, the state filed eight such actions, including the two filed today.

“As attorney general, I have been committed to holding polluters accountable for the legacy of contamination they left in our state,” said Grewal. “Too many companies have treated the public’s natural resources like private dumping grounds, despite the health risks to our residents and the harms to our environment. That is why we’ve spent the past two years making polluters pay for the damage they caused, efforts that continue with today’s lawsuits. I am proud of the 12 natural resource damage actions that we filed in just two years, and I know that we are only getting started.”

The two new lawsuits "continue DEP’s unwavering commitment to go beyond the cleanup of contaminated sites to requiring the restoration or compensation for the damage to our precious natural resources,” said McCabe. “Enforcing our state’s laws against past abuses helps put us on track toward a cleaner, healthier future for all New Jerseyans.”

The Sherwin Williams Company for decades operated a paint manufacturing plant and conducted related operations at multiple sites across Gibbsboro, Voorhees Township and Lindenwold, the release said.

From the mid-1800s until the 1970s, Sherwin Williams and its predecessors manufactured a variety of paint products, including dry colorants, lacquers, varnishes, resins and both oil-based and water-based paints, the release said. As part of its operations, the company used and stored thousands of gallons of hazardous materials such as lead oxide, zinc oxide, lead chromate, and sulfuric acid, the release said.

Sherwin Williams for many years discharged a “substantial amount of hazardous substances and industrial chemicals” into the ground and surface water, the release said.

According to the complaint, the contaminants discharged include lead, arsenic and other heavy metals, as well as a variety of potentially harmful chemical compounds and waste paints.

The complaint alleges that Sherwin Williams spent decades knowingly contaminating the environment, and consistently “ignored orders” from DEP to address the pollution it had created. The complaint also asserts that the company “repeatedly issued misleading or inaccurate statements … to downplay its responsibility for the contamination.”

Given the company’s noncompliance with orders, the complaint continues, the DEP was forced to refer the sites over to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which placed two of the sites on the National Priorities List as Superfund sites decades ago.

The EPA, working with DEP, is overseeing that remediation. The DEP is now seeking damages for that prior pollution, the release said.

In the other case: From 1970 until 1986, Handy & Harman Electronic Materials Corp. and its predecessor conducted metal etching and surfacing operations at a three-acre property located at 20 Craig Road in Montvale in Bergen County, the release said. Operations included the cleaning of electrical components through a degreasing process that relied on the solvent TCE.

According to the complaint, TCE was stored in a pair of 500-gallon, above-ground storage tanks located behind the facility, with waste TCE stored in drums located throughout the property, the release said.

According to the lawsuit, “numerous” discharges of TCE occurred both inside and outside the plant during its operating years. As a result of the contamination, several drinking water wells operated by the Park Ridge were impacted, which led to these drinking wells’ closure decades ago, the release said.

In December 1986, Handy & Harman entered into an Administrative Consent Order with the DEP requiring that the company investigate and remediate environmental contamination at the site. Since then, investigation and remediation activities have taken place both on the property and at impacted drinking water wells surrounding the property, the release said.

Through the new action, the DEP seeks to recover damages for the prior injuries to natural resources, as well as for the cleanup and removal costs that have been incurred by the state in the past and that are likely to be incurred going forward, the release said.