Opinion: Poor regulations have deadly consquences

Alex Emslie
STAFF WRITER

“Sludge Hill,” as media and local residents have dubbed the 500-acre toxic waste site near Ringwood, N.J., is a real and deadly example of sloppy federal regulation.

Almost three decades ago, Ford Motor Company closed their plant in Mahwah, N.J. Since the mid 1950s, Ford’s operation of the plant produced millions of cars, but this booming microcosm of American industrial success also produced an ugly byproduct the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that Ford dumped millions of gallons of paint sludge near Ringwood. The toxic sludge contains lead, arsenic, chromium and benzene, among other harmful chemicals and heavy metals. Residents suspect Ford’s dumping lead to the myriad of health problems, many of which have proven deadly for people of all ages, including children.

It’s easy to cast the Ford company as some kind of evil antagonist in this toxic tragedy, but the company’s waste disposal practices were never against the law. In the late 70s, New Jersey implemented some of the strictest toxic waste disposal regulations in the country, but most hauling was handled by the Mob. The Genovese crime  family had no ethical dilemmas about going around the law. The only change brought by the state’s new regulations was that unscrupulous haulers charged up to ten times as much as before.

In 1983, the EPA declared Ringwood a Superfund site. Such a designation allows the EPA to force “responsible parties”  to either clean up a priority site or reimburse the government for environmental cleanup. Since fines imposed by the EPA can be many times the cost of actual clean-up, there is significant incentive for a company to oversee a clean-up itself, which is exactly what Ford chose to do.

From 1986 to 1994, Ford removed over 7,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and 54 intact and crushed drums of waste, according to the EPA Web site. At that point, Ford declared Ringwood clean and safe, and the EPA took their word for it and removed Ringwood from the National Priority List.

That declaration was proven to be negligently premature. Over ten years of anger from residents at blundering inattention from the EPA prompted the organization to put Ringwood back on the priority list in 2006. Now statements released by the EPA suggest the clean-up is less than halfway complete after another 8,000 plus cubic yards of contaminated soil have been removed.

Approximately 650 Ringwood residents have filed a class action suit against Ford, demanding compensation of $3 million per person or over $2 billion total. It may be especially difficult, however, for the plaintiffs to prove that health problems in their town are linked to Ford’s dumping. Many factors, including genetics and smoking, can cause the types of cancer and disease found in Ringwood.

Ford’s heartless negligence is outmatched only by the EPA’s incompetence. America’s current financial crisis proves that corporations are incapable of policing themselves. The consequences are worse than numerical. A low-income town has lived saturated with poison for nearly three decades, two of which under the EPA’s direction. The federal government shares responsibility in the premature deaths of Ringwood children and adults.