Booker, Menendez want answers from Argentina on Passaic River cleanup funding

Scott Fallon | NorthJersey

Show Caption Hide Caption Video: Passaic RIver cleanup A $1.38 billion cleanup of the Passaic River was ordered by federal officials in 2016.

Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez want to meet with Argentine officials to discuss whether their state-run oil company is trying to avoid paying a substantial portion of the $1.38 billion Passaic River cleanup.

In a letter sent to Argentine Ambassador Martín Lousteau on Friday, the two asked for assurances that the company, YPF SA, will pay its share of one of the most expensive toxic waste cleanups in U.S. history. A YPF SA subsidiary on the hook for a substantial portion of the cleanup declared bankruptcy shortly after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the massive cleanup.

"This bankruptcy filing left many in New Jersey with concerns about YPF’s role in the bankruptcy proceedings, and whether the filing is motivated by a desire to evade environmental cleanup liability," the letter reads. The letter was also signed by Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware.

The letter is more diplomatic than a bi-partisan resolution approved Thursday by the state Senate that claimed YPF SA stripped "billions of dollars in assets out of Maxus leaving it unable to perform its Superfund obligations for the Diamond Alkali site."

POLLUTION: Officials say company is avoiding Passaic cleanup costs

CONTRIBUTORS: America first? Not when it comes to Argentina, our environment

LAWMAKERS: Argentine company is trying to get out of $1.38B Passaic River cleanup

The state resolution calls on the U.S. Attorney General and the New Jersey Attorney General to investigate any potential violations of federal or state law by YPF SA and Maxus.

YPF SA has dismissed the allegations but has not explained the bankruptcy filing. The company said Occidental Chemical of Texas, another company involved in the cleanup, is trying to shift its burden onto the Argentine company.

YPF SA and Occidental are one of more than 100 companies on the hook for the cleanup. But the companies would likely pay a large share because they inherited the liability of the Passaic River's most notorious polluters.

YPF SA is the parent company of Maxus Energy. A subsidiary of Maxus owned the Diamond Alkali plant in Newark, which under different owners dumped cancer-causing dioxin in the Passaic a half century ago while manufacturing the infamous Vietnam-era defoliant Agent Orange.

Maxus filed for bankruptcy in June 2016 three months after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the $1.38 billion cleanup, according to court records.

The EPA's cleanup plan calls for 3.5 million cubic yards of sediment laced with cancer-causing dioxin, PCBs, mercury and other industrial pollution to be scooped out of the river's lower eight miles from Newark Bay to Belleville. The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a proof of claim with the bankruptcy court in Delaware, saying the EPA has a right to be paid for the company's liability with the Passaic River cleanup.

"After enduring decades of contamination, the community surrounding the Passaic River deserves full and comprehensive remediation and each responsible party should be held accountable to pay for it without further delay," the letter from Booker and Menendez reads.