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The settlement with Cycle Chem, Inc. -- formerly known as Perk Chemical Co. -- and Handy & Harman resolves a 2019 lawsuit over the discharge of a degreasing solvent and other hazardous substances at an etching and surfacing facility on Craig Road in Montvale.
The solvent, trichloroethylene (TCE), has been linked to cancer, in the liver and kidneys, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said.
It was used at the site from 1966 to 1985, contaminated multiple underlying groundwater aquifers and forced the closure of nearby drinking water wells, he said.
The settlement, approved by a Superior Court judge in Hackensack, represents a "significant" recovery for the state, which "will use the funds to restore natural resources and recover its own cleanup costs," Platkin said.
Although the companies didn't admit fault or liability, they did agree to "resolve their alleged liability for natural resource damages and to reimburse the State for past cleanup and removal costs," the attorney general said.
Under the consent agreement, he said, Handy & Harman pays $10.4 million to settle the state’s claims for damages "arising from injuries to natural resources," as well as more than $93,300 to reimburse the NJDEP for prior cleanup and removal costs.
Cycle Chem, meanwhile, pays $3.5 million, including more than $3.46 million in natural resource damages and $31,100 toward reimbursement of the state’s past cleanup and removal efforts, Platkin said.
Handy & Harman is doing remediation work at the site, with the cleanup expected to be completed "in the near future," he said.
The work, Platkin said, "will reduce the size of the groundwater plume, decrease potential impacts to drinking water wells, and mitigate the impacts of vapors in nearby buildings."
"To prevent exposure to the contamination, the remediation will also involve restrictions on the use of groundwater in two areas," the attorney general said.
"The smaller area involves a TCE plume extending across the Craig Road property and stretching about 600 feet off the property, to a depth of approximately 60 feet," he said. "The larger section involves a bedrock TCE plume encompassing the entire Craig Road property and extending over 8,000 feet off the property, with a depth of approximately 700 feet and a width of approximately 4,000 feet."
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