Ringwood Mines Update
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14 years 8 months ago #1
by demonicdreamz
Ringwood Mines Update was created by demonicdreamz
Attorneys briefed a judge Thursday about a pending lawsuit settlement in Ford Motor Co.'s dumping of toxic paint sludge amid a remote Native American community in Upper Ringwood.
Attorneys for residents — who claim the pollution plagued them with illnesses — and six defendants including Ford Motor Co. and the Borough of Ringwood are hammering out the agreement over the waste dumped more than four decades ago.
State Superior Court Judge Brian R. Martinotti in Hackensack met with the seven attorneys in private conference Thursday. He said nothing about the case publicly except that he wanted “to see where we are and where we’re going.” He scheduled another status hearing for Sept. 3.
The attorneys immediately left the courtroom, declining to speak to reporters.
Several people close to the case, who spoke on the condition their names not be used, said a dollar amount has been settled, but details such as getting all necessary signatures still must be attended to. No one would say what the amount is or whether medical monitoring for the residents, a condition they have requested for years, will be part of the settlement.
In January 2006, residents filed a mass tort suit against Ford, Ringwood and a handful of companies involved in the dumping. They claim they have suffered personal injury and property damage, but did not specify a dollar amount.
RINGWOOD RESIDENTS/FORD TIMELINE
1967-71: Ford Motor Company contractors dump thousands of tons of paint sludge into a former mining area of Ringwood that is also home to nearly 500 residents.
1983: Area put on federal Superfund list of hazardous sites
1994: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declares the area clean and takes it off Superfund list after Ford removes more than 7,000 cubic yards of sludge and tainted soil
2004: Residents complain of serious illnesses and show government officials waste remaining on their properties and in nearby lands including Ringwood State Park.
2006: Residents file suit against Ford, Ringwood and several companies. EPA returns the site to Superfund list.
2009: Suit settlement is worked on by attorneys.
The suit was tossed back and forth between state and federal court before landing in state Superior Court in Bergen County, because Ford’s contamination came from its Mahwah plant. Judge Jonathan Harris, who initially handled the case, quickly ruled that “bellwether” plaintiffs — a handful that would represent the rest — would not be allowed and each plaintiff would need to testify. With more than 600 plaintiffs, that essentially makes the case impossible to try and has been an impetus for settlement talks.
Word that an agreement had been reached leaked out in April. Since then, those involved in the case, including the plaintiffs, local officials, and lawyers, have remained mum about particulars.
Ringwood Mayor Walter Davison, who said Thursday he couldn’t talk about details, added “our insurance companies will be paying the bulk of our share of the settlement. We haven’t been informed by our attorney that we owe any great amount of money for this.”
Members of the community, many of whom belong to the state-recognized Ramapough Mountain Indian tribe, claim they did not know in the 1960’s that the industrial waste could be harmful. Colorful swaths of toxic liquid paint sludge were dumped by Ford contractors down hillsides and into abandoned mine pits.
The sludge contains lead and arsenic, two known causes of major illness. Residents told of children painting their faces with the sludge and sliding on it as if it was snow. Meanwhile, the general community, with its heritage of living off the land, drank water from local springs, gardened on contaminated sites, and hunted and ate wildlife from local woods.
But as the number of residents stricken by asthma, skin rashes, and cancer grew, the once-insular community reached outside for help. The Record reported on its plight in its Toxic Legacy series in October 2005. In the train of events, residents attracted a team of prominent environmental attorneys who included Robert Kennedy Jr.’s firm and Johnny Cochran’s firm. Federal and state elected officials also intervened.
Residents’ attorneys have since conducted health-related interviews, and the state has compared illness rates in the community with general trends.
To date, no official link has been made between the pollution and the illnesses.
The federal government had trusted Ford to clear the area of waste as part of a Superfund project two decades ago and declared the cleanup complete in 1994. After the recent disclosures of remaining mounds of toxic waste, it reinstated the Superfund designation. Since 2004, Ford has removed some 35,000 tons of waste — five times the amount taken out in its initial cleanup.
On Wednesday, when reached for a comment about the ongoing settlement talks, one of the leaders of the neighborhood said the community is once again in mourning for an elder lost to cancer.
"I can't really think about anything else right now," Vivian Milligan said. "We're going to her wake and that's really all that's on our minds."[url:32x1i7fp]www.northjersey.com/news/environment/Set...rd_dumping_suit.html[/url]
Attorneys for residents — who claim the pollution plagued them with illnesses — and six defendants including Ford Motor Co. and the Borough of Ringwood are hammering out the agreement over the waste dumped more than four decades ago.
State Superior Court Judge Brian R. Martinotti in Hackensack met with the seven attorneys in private conference Thursday. He said nothing about the case publicly except that he wanted “to see where we are and where we’re going.” He scheduled another status hearing for Sept. 3.
The attorneys immediately left the courtroom, declining to speak to reporters.
Several people close to the case, who spoke on the condition their names not be used, said a dollar amount has been settled, but details such as getting all necessary signatures still must be attended to. No one would say what the amount is or whether medical monitoring for the residents, a condition they have requested for years, will be part of the settlement.
In January 2006, residents filed a mass tort suit against Ford, Ringwood and a handful of companies involved in the dumping. They claim they have suffered personal injury and property damage, but did not specify a dollar amount.
RINGWOOD RESIDENTS/FORD TIMELINE
1967-71: Ford Motor Company contractors dump thousands of tons of paint sludge into a former mining area of Ringwood that is also home to nearly 500 residents.
1983: Area put on federal Superfund list of hazardous sites
1994: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declares the area clean and takes it off Superfund list after Ford removes more than 7,000 cubic yards of sludge and tainted soil
2004: Residents complain of serious illnesses and show government officials waste remaining on their properties and in nearby lands including Ringwood State Park.
2006: Residents file suit against Ford, Ringwood and several companies. EPA returns the site to Superfund list.
2009: Suit settlement is worked on by attorneys.
The suit was tossed back and forth between state and federal court before landing in state Superior Court in Bergen County, because Ford’s contamination came from its Mahwah plant. Judge Jonathan Harris, who initially handled the case, quickly ruled that “bellwether” plaintiffs — a handful that would represent the rest — would not be allowed and each plaintiff would need to testify. With more than 600 plaintiffs, that essentially makes the case impossible to try and has been an impetus for settlement talks.
Word that an agreement had been reached leaked out in April. Since then, those involved in the case, including the plaintiffs, local officials, and lawyers, have remained mum about particulars.
Ringwood Mayor Walter Davison, who said Thursday he couldn’t talk about details, added “our insurance companies will be paying the bulk of our share of the settlement. We haven’t been informed by our attorney that we owe any great amount of money for this.”
Members of the community, many of whom belong to the state-recognized Ramapough Mountain Indian tribe, claim they did not know in the 1960’s that the industrial waste could be harmful. Colorful swaths of toxic liquid paint sludge were dumped by Ford contractors down hillsides and into abandoned mine pits.
The sludge contains lead and arsenic, two known causes of major illness. Residents told of children painting their faces with the sludge and sliding on it as if it was snow. Meanwhile, the general community, with its heritage of living off the land, drank water from local springs, gardened on contaminated sites, and hunted and ate wildlife from local woods.
But as the number of residents stricken by asthma, skin rashes, and cancer grew, the once-insular community reached outside for help. The Record reported on its plight in its Toxic Legacy series in October 2005. In the train of events, residents attracted a team of prominent environmental attorneys who included Robert Kennedy Jr.’s firm and Johnny Cochran’s firm. Federal and state elected officials also intervened.
Residents’ attorneys have since conducted health-related interviews, and the state has compared illness rates in the community with general trends.
To date, no official link has been made between the pollution and the illnesses.
The federal government had trusted Ford to clear the area of waste as part of a Superfund project two decades ago and declared the cleanup complete in 1994. After the recent disclosures of remaining mounds of toxic waste, it reinstated the Superfund designation. Since 2004, Ford has removed some 35,000 tons of waste — five times the amount taken out in its initial cleanup.
On Wednesday, when reached for a comment about the ongoing settlement talks, one of the leaders of the neighborhood said the community is once again in mourning for an elder lost to cancer.
"I can't really think about anything else right now," Vivian Milligan said. "We're going to her wake and that's really all that's on our minds."[url:32x1i7fp]www.northjersey.com/news/environment/Set...rd_dumping_suit.html[/url]
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