DOJ Files Suit Seeking $950 Million To Fund Cleanup In Wisconsin

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; [e-mail]