While the […] clerks in mainstream media keep their heads down, and their mouths closed while cashing their checks, independent media take principled stands in favor of free expression, and people admire these stands. They are, after all admirable. ~~~ Patrick Lawrence
After denying most of the request, DEP partially responded today to my OPRA request for DEP “enforcement documents” against Ford Motor Company for years of illegal dumping of hazardous wastes (including fines and penalties issued and collected).
As I suspected, DEP documents reveal that DEP never issued a single fine or penalty against Ford for illegal disposal of hazardous wastes for decades, actions that DEP described thusly:
Repeat: DEP never fined Ford Motor Company. Not once. DEP never collected a single penny in enforcement fines.
DEP failed to take enforcement action (i.e. enforcement is defined as DEP actions to issue fines and collect penalties for violations of environmental laws) despite being legally authorized to issue enforcement fines of $50,000 per day, and after having repeatedly threatened to do so.
What DEP considers “enforcement” is limited to requiring Ford to pay their salaries and pay for the cost of cleanup and pay DEP for the costs they incurred in cleaning up Ford’s mess (including DEP staff salaries).
DEP does not make polluters pay fines for violating environmental laws – like illegal disposal of hazardous wastes – even for knowing and egregious violations of environmental laws that should be criminally prosecuted.
To be clear, DEP provided 5 documents in response to my OPRA request, as follows (I am glad to provide them via email to anyone interested in these documents):
1) An October 31, 2005 “Directive” (Happy Halloween!)
After making findings of egregious Ford violations and foot dragging, this Directive merely required Ford to pay $500,000 to DEP for DEP to “conduct a limited paint sludge removal actions” (sic).
To be clear: this money was NOT an enforcement fine for violating environmental laws. It was only to pay DEP to conduct a limited cleanup.
Paragraph #16 of this Directive threatened to impose “treble damages” (i.e. DEP would assume control of the cleanup and make Ford pay 3 TIMES DEP’s cleanup costs), if Ford did not comply, but DEP never delivered on this threat, despite years of noncompliance by Ford.
Paragraph #17 of this Directive threatened to issue $50,000 per day penalties, but DEP never delivered on this idle threat.
2. A May 30, 2007 “Directive”
Outrageously, this Directive treated the Borough of Ringwood exactly the same as the “reckless” “wanton” corporate polluter Ford Motor Company – naming both legally “strictly liable” as “responsible parties” for all “cleanup and removal costs”.
Incredibly, the Directive went even further. DEP included a paragraph that made it appear that the Borough – not DEP – was neglecting its responsibility:
8. The Borough of Ringwood is responsible for the safety of the residents of the Upper Ringwood community.
The Directive merely ordered Ford AND Ringwood Borough to conduct additional studies.
It repeated the idle threats to assume the cleanup and collect “treble damages” and to impose $50,000 per day fines.
No fines issued, no penalties assessed or collected.
3. A June 4, 2008 Letter
Again, Ford and the Borough are treated the same. This letter was DEP’s
“formal notice that the Department has determined that Borough of Ringwood and Ford Motor Company are required to remove and properly dispose of all solid waste which has been excavated from the site and segregated in the SR6 area, to an approved/permitted disposal facility.”
Again keeping their powder dry, the DEP reserved its “enforcement powers”.
4. An October 1, 2014 EPA “Administrative Order On Consent”
DEP is not a party to this EPA Superfund Action, so I don’t know why DEP provided it as a response to my OPRA, which was limited to DEP documents.
But I will note that it too – like the DEP Directives – also does not impose fines and penalties for illegal dumping of hazardous waste.
It merely collects funds for cleanup costs and threatens to impose “stipulated penalties (from $500 – $4,500 per day) for violations of the Consent Order – not for the underlying egregious “reckless” “wanton” years long violations of environmental laws that poisoned the people and environment of NJ.
Regardless, NJ DEP has gone alone with virtually all the bad EPA decisions at this site, and has completely failed to enforce independent stand alone NJ State environmental laws to protect the people and environment of NJ. That failure applies to EPA cleanup and enforcement decisions.
5. An August 5, 2020 Judicial Consent Decree
DEP is a party to this Civil Action – along with Ford and the federal government.
The consent decree is limited to aspects of the site:
CONSENT DECREE FOR REMEDIAL ACTION FOR OPERABLE UNIT 2 RINGWOOD MINES/LANDFILL SUPERFUND SITE
Like prior DEP Directives, it imposes no fines and penalties for violations of environmental laws.
It is limited to requiring Ford to pay for cleanup costs.
Ford is not required to suffer any punitive actions for their illegal activities – in fact, DEP and EPA even provide a “covenant not to sue” if Ford complies with the consent decree.
This is the way the DEP (and EPA) toxic site cleanup programs operate.
Polluters are never punished for their illegal disposal actions, but merely required to “cleanup” (partially) some of the mess they made.
Sometimes, in a handful of egregious cases, they also are required to pay a few pennies on the dollar for the damage to natural resources they caused.
Yet no one in the environmental community – or the media – seems to be aware of or even mention this egregiously pro-corporate policy, never mind oppose it or try to reform it.
[End Note: Of course, you will not read any of this in mainstream press, or even the “alternative press” like NJ Spotlight. Which leads me to this little gem of an explanation by Patrick Lawrence: (insert any media outlet of your choosing in the [bracketed blanks])
[…..] other sponsors (and for that matter the Democracy Fund’s) are comprised of the sorts of foundations that support NPR, PBS, and other such media. Anyone who assumes media institutions taking money from such sponsors are authentically independent does not understand philanthropy as a well-established conduit through which orthodoxies are enforced.
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