The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against 10 companies
and two municipalities seeking an estimated $950 million to fund
environmental cleanup work at Lower Fox River and Green Bay in the
northeastern portion of Wisconsin.
The defendants in the government's lawsuit include paper
companies that allegedly contaminated sediment in the Fox River and
Green Bay when they made and recycled a particular type of
polychlorinated-biphenyl-containing "carbonless" copy paper.
According to the agency's Environment and Natural Resources
Division, a large amount of cleanup and natural restoration work
has already been done in the area under a set of partial
settlements and an Environmental Protection Agency administrative
order.
The parties performing the ongoing cleanup effort, however, have
protested, and they have not agreed to take full responsibility for
completing the cleanup or paying all damages, according to the
Justice Department. The complaint seeks a court order requiring the
parties to continue funding and performing the site's cleanup
without delay.
More than $300 million in cleanup work has already been done at
the site. The remaining dredging and capping work could cost an
estimated $550 million more. According to an assessment of resource
damage under the Superfund law, the additional cost of resource
restoration work could approach another $400 million.
In addition to the complaint, the U.S. and Wisconsin filed a
proposed settlement with one of the newly named
defendants--Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products LP--which agreed to
pay $7 million to reimburse a portion of the government's unpaid
past and future costs.
The lawsuit will proceed against 11 other defendants, including:
NCR Corp. (NCR), Appleton Papers Inc., CBC Coating Inc., the city
of Appleton, Kimberly-Clark Corp. (KMB), Menasha Corp., the
Neenah-Menasha Sewerage Commission, NewPage Wisconsin Systems Inc.,
P.H. Glatfelter Co., U.S. Paper Mills Corp., and WTM I Co.
-By John Kell, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2480;
john.kell@dowjones.com