Make No Mistake, LaTourette Is Lying (Again)

Murphy DEP Commissioner Denies DEP’s Legal Covenant Not To Sue Chemical Giant BASF

Toms River Community Hammers Murphy DEP

8. The Department fully and forever releases, covenants not to sue, and not to otherwise take administrative action against BASF and its corporate officers, directors, employees, predecessors, parents, successors, and subsidiaries, for any and all of the Department’s causes of actions for Natural Resource Damages arising from discharges at or from the Site. ~~~  DEP – BASF Settlement Agreement

[Update – Letter to LaTourette Below]

As I predicted, the Murphy DEP got hammered by the people of Toms River last night, who blasted DEP for failure to consult with them before cutting a secret and dirty deal with corporate polluter BASF at the Ciba Geigy Superfund site.

We documented and explained the 10 biggest substantive flaws in the deal in this post:

• Ten Good Reasons Why The Murphy DEP’s BASF Toms River Superfund Site NRD Deal Is A Corporate Giveaway That Must Be Withdrawn

We blasted the DEP’s failure to consult with the community:

• Hometown Of Ciba-Geigy Childhood Cancer Cluster Nightmare Opposes Murphy DEP Sweetheart Deal With Corporate Polluter BASF

We exposed DEP’s disgusting political campaign to sell it to the public and media:

• Murphy DEP Provided A Secret Briefing With Hand Picked Environmental Leaders On The Controversial BASF Toms River Settlement, Days Before It Was Made Public

And we blasted Commissioner LaTourette’s clueless lack of empathy for the community and victims of the childhood cancer cluster, and for his denial of the childhood cancer cluster (which the media continue to deny and fail to acknowledge actually occurred. For example, today’s NJ Spotlight story alludes to the childhood cancer cluster by reference to a prior $13 million legal settlement for cancer):

• NJ Gov. Murphy Must Fire DEP Commissioner LaTourette For His Handling Of Toms River Ciba-Geigy – BASF Deal

Read the NJ DoH Report:

“The study found that prenatal exposure to two environmental factors in the past were associated with increased risk of leukemia in female children. These exposures were: 1) access to drinking water from the Parkway well field after the time that the well field was most likely to be contaminated, and 2) air pollutant emissions from the Ciba-Geigy chemical manufacturing plant.”

[Update: 1/28/23 – Wayne Parry’s AP story get the cancer cluster.]

If LaTourette wants to brag about anything, he should brag about the DEP laboratory chemists who isolated and identified the unregulated chemicals that caused the cancer cluster. But he doesn’t want to talk about unregulated chemicals, because the public would be outraged to learn of that and his friends in the chemical industry and big Pharma would have his head on a platter.

So, of course, we were not surprised that the Toms River community was outraged.

Watch the NJ Spotlight video of some of the community’s testimony.

But I was appalled to hear Murphy DEP Commissioner LaTourette flat out lie – not spin, lie – when he said this: (starting at time 2:20)

Make no mistake, nobody’s off the hook.

If he said that to a judge in a Court of law, he could be disbarred.

BASF is legally off the hook

The DEP settlement includes a very broadly worded “release” and “covenant not to sue” – in perpetuity (as forever).

DEP would provide BASF with a release and covenant not to sue, in perpetuity (See also Appendix A):

8. The Department fully and forever releases, covenants not to sue, and not to otherwise take administrative action against BASF and its corporate officers, directors, employees, predecessors, parents, successors, and subsidiaries, for any and all of the Department’s causes of actions for Natural Resource Damages arising from discharges at or from the Site.

For a DEP Commissioner to look the media and the public straight in the eye and flat out lie is grounds for firing. Period.

We again call on Gov. Murphy to fire his ass.

[Update: I just sent the below letter to Commissioner LaTourette with copies to Legislative leaders and media:

Dear Commissioner LaTourette:

I just watched NJ Spotlight video of your remarks regarding the Department’s proposed Natural Resource Damage settlement with BASF at the former Ciba Geigy Toms River Superfund site.

You claimed that BSF was not “off the hook”. You said (about time 2:30):

“Make no mistake, nobody’s off the hook”.

As you know, the DEP settlement includes a very broadly worded “covenant not to sue” – in perpetuity (as “forever”). A CNS legally lets BASF “off the hook”.

DEP would provide BASF with a broad covenant not to sue, in perpetuity (See also Appendix A):

“8. The Department fully and forever releases, covenants not to sue, and not to otherwise take administrative action against BASF and its corporate officers, directors, employees, predecessors, parents, successors, and subsidiaries, for any and all of the Department’s causes of actions for Natural Resource Damages arising from discharges at or from the Site.”

For a DEP Commissioner to look the media and the public straight in the eye and flat out lie is grounds for firing. Period. If that false statement were made in a court of law, it could be grounds for disbarment. 

This is not some minor disagreement about political spin and media commentary. Th CNS is a core legal pillar of the settlement. You are a licensed lawyer.

I demand that you correct the public record for you false statements to NJ Spotlight, apologize to the people of Toms River, and resign,

Bill Wolfe