Public Township Council Meeting — Packet

96-12 May 29, 2012 RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING EXECUTION OF A LETTER TO STATE SENATORS AND ASSEMBLYMEN IN THE ACTION ENTITLED NJDEP v. OCCIDENTAL CHEMICAL CORPORATION, ET AL. WHEREAS, certain claims have been asserted against the Township of West Orange in the action entitled NJDEP v. Occidental Chemical Corporation, et al., Docket No. ESX-L-9868-05 pending in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Essex County (the “Litigation”) regarding alleged environmental contamination at the lower 17 miles of the Passaic River, Newark Bay, the lower reaches of the Hackensack River, the Arthur Kill, the Kill Van Kull, and into adjacent waters and sediments(the “Newark Bay Complex”); WHEREAS, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the Administrator of the New Jersey Spill Compensation Fund (hereinafter referred to collectively as the “State of New Jersey”) commenced the present litigation on or around December 13, 2005, suing defendants, Occidental Chemical Corporation, Tierra Solutions, Inc., Maxus Energy Corporation, Repsol YPF, S.A., YPF, S.A., YPF Holdings, Inc. and CLH Holdings (hereinafter referred to collectively as the “Tierra- Maxus Defendants”); WHEREAS, the State of New Jersey’s Complaint seeks to recover from the Tierra-Maxus Defendants past and future cleanup and removal costs, as well as unspecified economic damages, punitive damages, damages for alleged “unjust enrichment,” penalties and a variety of other forms of relief purportedly arising from the alleged discharges into the Passaic River of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (a form of dioxin referred to as “TCDD”) and other unspecified “hazardous substances” from a plant that operated at 80 Lister Avenue in Newark, New Jersey for approximately twenty years before the plant was closed in 1969. WHEREAS, in its Complaint, the State has alleged that as a direct result of the Tierra-Maxus Defendants’ intentional releases and discharges into the Passaic River, and the Tierra-Maxus Defendants’ subsequent practice of obfuscation and delay for another twenty-plus years, TCDD has migrated throughout Newark Bay Complex; WHEREAS, on or around

aic River, and the Tierra-Maxus Defendants’ subsequent practice of obfuscation and delay for another twenty-plus years, TCDD has migrated throughout Newark Bay Complex; WHEREAS, on or around February 4, 2009, defendants, Maxus Energy Corporation and Tierra Solutions, Inc. filed a third-party complaint against approximately eighty-five (85) municipalities and public entities including the Township of West Orange for contribution towards the cleanup and removal costs that Maxus and Tierra have incurred or will incur in the future relating to the Newark Bay Complex.