Assemblyman To VP: Force Company To Pay $1.4B To Cleanup Passaic River

WYCKOFF, NJ — A state legislator is asking federal officials for help in forcing an Argentina-based oil company to pay $1.4 billion to remediate part of the Passaic River.

Assemblyman Kevin Rooney (District 40) sent letters to Vice President Mike Pence and Argentina President Mauricio Macri urging them to work together to have the YPF, S.A., an Argentine-owned oil company, honor its Superfund obligation to remediate the pollution it caused in the southern part of Passaic River.

RELATED: Officials To Polluters: Pay Up To Clean Up Passaic River

Diamond Alkali made DDT, Agent Orange and other agricultural chemicals there in the 1950s and 1960s. Dioxin and pesticides were found in sediment in the Lower Passaic River and local groundwater in the 1980s. Other companies that operated along the river also contributed to the pollution, officials said. Maxius Energy purchased the site in the 1980s and was found to be partially responsible for the cleanup.

YPF, S.A. filed for bankruptcy last June, three months after the cleanup plan was announced.

It will cost nearly $1.4 billion to clean up the river.

Rooney is co-sponsoring a resolution urging state and federal authorities to investigate YPF S.A.'s bankruptcy filing as a possible way of getting the company out of remediation responsibility.

"The New Jersey Legislature will not allow companies to avoid their Superfund obligation without consequences," Rooney said in his letter to Pence.

Rooney Letter To Vice President Mike Pence by Daniel Hubbard on Scribd

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