Companies To Pay $212,000 Over Mercury Pollution in Rye Brook

Five Rye Brook contractors will split payment of a settlement totaling $212,750 for mercury clean up at the Port Refinery Superfund site at 55 Hillandale Road, according to a release by the United States Attorney, Southern District of New York on Thursday evening.

Jacob Goldberg & Son, Inc., Leonard Sherman, L&B Metals, Poor Charlie and Company, and Alexander Fariello have agreed to turn over the funds to redeem costs paid by the Enivironmental Protection Agency (EPA) associated with the removal of scrap mercury contamination that occurred after the parties sold the materials to Port Refinery, Inc.

The agreement states that the 5 parties "do not admit any liability to the United States arising out of the transactions or occurrences alleged in the Complaint."

Clean up of the site first took place between 1991 and 1996; residual amounts were found and removed in 2004.

According to a 2005 EPA update on the Rye Brook village website, village police responded nearly 20 years ago to complaints that a Rye Brook resident was illegally storing scrap mercury at his Hillandale residence. Structures at the site were demolished after significant contamination levels were measured. Costs for clean up at that time were totaled at $4 million. 

According to the US Attorney's release, since 2004 the treatment and disposal of the hazardous substance spilled at the Port Refinery site cost the EPA more than $7 million. 

The release also says that the US Attorney will continue to pursue costs from 5 remaining defendants on the lawsuit as well as "more than 20 other potentially responsible parties."