New Jersey Posts Details Of $225M Exxon Settlement On Website
TRENTON, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New Jersey has posted details of its proposed $225 million settlement with Exxon Mobil over pollution around refineries in Linden and Bayonne.
Details of the proposed deal the attorney general struck last month with the Texas-based oil company were published Monday morning on the Department of Environmental Protection's website.
The proposed settlement is now open for 60 days of public comment. The deal needs to be approved by a judge.
New Jersey Posts Details Of $225M Exxon Settlement On Website
Critics, including New Jersey Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel, plan to speak out loudly against the proposal.
"This is a dirty deal done dirt cheap," Tittel told WCBS 880's Jim Smith.
Tittel said the Christie administration is leaving billions of dollars on the table and that most of what the state is paid can be used to plug budget holes, instead of fixing the environment.
"We hope the judge will listen to the large outcry of the public and reject the settlement," Tittel said.
The Sierra Club is planning to file legal action to stop the deal.
News of the settlement came in early March when acting Attorney General John Hoffman announced the deal with Exxon, the culmination of an 11-year-old lawsuit that charged the company polluted the land and water around the oil refineries.
DEP spokesman Bob Considine called the deal "historic" based on what the state felt it could prove.
"That $225 million is second in the history of the U.S. behind the Exxon Valdez," he said, adding Exxon also must pay for the entire remediation.
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