Leaders Join Together in Linden to Call for Better Environmental Protections on Earth Day

For Immediate
Release

April 21, 2015

Contact: Jeff Tittel, Director, NJ Sierra Club, 609-558-9100

Tony Teixeira, Chief of Staff to Sen. Lesniak, (908) 247-2344

Leaders Join Together in Linden to Call for Better Environmental Protections on Earth Day

Linden- Today elected officials, environmental activists, and local community members came together at the Memorial Field Park to bring attention to critical environmental issues impacting the city of Linden and the entire state. Activists called on citizens to take action this Earth Day in opposition of the settlement agreement.

“The proposed Exxon settlement is a huge gift to the corporate giant at the expense of the residents of Linden, Bayonne and the entire State of New Jersey,” said State Senator Raymond Lesniak.

The biggest environmental threat facing New Jersey this Earth Day, according to the groups gathered, is the State’s proposed settlement agreement with Exxon Mobil. The company operated a number of facilities across the state that resulted in contamination of air, water, and soil and in 2004 New Jersey went to court for money to clean up those sites and compensate the state for damages to our natural resources. This month the NJDEP has opened a public comment period on a proposed settlement wherein Exxon would pay $225 million, instead of the $8.9 billion in damages the state originally requested. The legal case focused on the Bayway facility in Linden and Exxon’s Bayonne facility but the settlement also includes 16 additional sites and over 600 gas stations around New Jersey.

“We are here in Linden because there is no place more important in the county this Earth Day. This is ground zero in the battle for the environment. Nowhere in the country does every issue come so cleanly into focus: toxic site cleanup, air pollution, water pollution, fracking, pipelines, and mostly importantly the principle of polluter pay. You make the mess you need to clean it. The Exxon settlement shows how big corporations can pollute communities and ruin the environment and then try to get away,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.

The DEP settlement also allows the Linden refinery to keep polluting without doing any clean-ups under the refinery itself and allows Exxon to cap the site instead of calling for the site to be restored to its original conditions before the spill as required under a previous court case. Exxon has been under an Administrative Consent Order for the Bayway refinery since 1991 to clean-up the site. Capping the site would mean Exxon would be required to simply fill the site and not completely restore it, leaving tons of oil and chemicals in the ground.

“The Exxon Mobil settlement amount that has been offered in the lawsuit boggles one’s mind. It is absolutely absurd and a slap in the face to the communities that have been affected. To think out of an estimated $9 billion dollar cleanup to the environment, that this suit would be settled for pennies on the dollar. The $250 million dollar amount is unconscionable. This amount does not account for the loss of use over the years and also what our community’s wetlands, marshes, meadows and waters have endured including the endangerment to our wildlife. To add insult to injury this recent decision also includes additional Exxon Service Stations, throughout our state, as part of the clean-up settlement,” said Linden Mayor Derek Armstead. “We may be standing here today with the Bayway Refinery, as our backdrop, but we must note that the damage caused over time was that of Exxon’s and Exxon’s alone.”

The city of Linden is also along the path of the proposed Pilgrim Pipeline, a 178 mile project to transport explosive Bakken crude oil. Before coming into Linden, the pipeline would cut through the Highlands region and across densely populated communities. The path would endanger critical drinking water supplies along the Pompton, Ramapo, and Passaic Rivers, while adding more pollution in environmental justice communities. The gas in the pipeline would be extracted through fracking, a form of drilling that results in significant air and water pollution. The State Assembly, three counties and 34 municipalities have come out in opposition to the project.

“When it comes to the environment, sometimes the polluters get to confuse the issues and not everyone understands all the complexities. But when the Governor sells out the state to a big corporate polluter, everyone gets it. When you settle an $8.9 billion lawsuit for pennies on the dollar and throw in 16 other contaminated sites and over 800 gas stations on top, costing taxpayers more, everyone can see when the Governor says it is good deal, it is good deal for Exxon. This is so obviously bad you don’t need to be a scientist or policy wonk to get. That is why people are outraged and are here to stop this dirty deal,” said Jeff Tittel.

The comment period on the Exxon settlement lasts 60 days, until June 5, 2015. Written comments can be submitted electronically to exxonmobilbaywaysettlement@dep.nj.gov , with the subject “Exxon Mobil Bayway Settlement” or in hard copy to:

Office of Record Access

NJDEP

Attn: Exxon Mobil Bayway Comments

P.O. Box 420 Mail Code 401-06Q

Trenton, N.J. 08625-0420