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Washington, D.C. --- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. and U.S. Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert Menendez today characterized a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Inspector General's (IG) report about environmental justice concerns at the Ringwood Superfund site as a "serious disappointment." In response to the report, the New Jersey lawmakers also called on the IG to do a more comprehensive assessment of the treatment of Ringwood community residents. The IG report, which was released today, came as part of a response to a request made by the three lawmakers in March 2006.
"Ford dumped paint sludge on this community for years and EPA miserably failed when it came to cleaning up the site," Rep. Pallone said. "It looks like the IG's method for figuring out whether racism was a factor involved asking the EPA, who said no. How much more obvious could this situation be? As the community members know, this site would have been cleaned up the first time had it been located in a more affluent area. Instead, the cleanup has dragged on for more than 20 years. The IG needs to go back to the drawing board and take a closer look at the injustices that took place at Ringwood."
“EPA walked away from Ringwood while it was still contaminated and hasn’t finished the job,” said Sen. Lautenberg. “While this report claims that racism wasn’t a factor, it raises more questions than it answers and proves the EPA failed to communicate sufficiently with the Ringwood community about the site. That is simply unacceptable. EPA needs to get to the bottom of this failure and get this site cleaned up once and for all.”
“The lack of immediate evidence of environmental racism does not fully resolve this matter, and I share the continuing concerns of the local residents,” said Menendez. “This isn’t a closed case. Something caused the federal government to botch the Ringwood cleanup. Whether it was a racial issue or not, the inspector general should keep digging until we get to the bottom of this.”
The IG report did criticize EPA for poor communication with the community and advised the agency to improve its outreach efforts. The three New Jersey members commended the IG for those recommendations, noting that EPA's record of communicating with the community is atrocious.
“This is a major public health issue for New Jersey residents, and we deserve answers,” said Menendez. “I’m hoping that the EPA finally gets the message that its communication to and cooperation with local residents has been severely lacking.”
“This IG report simply doesn’t go far enough in answering the questions surrounding the cleanup,” Sen. Lautenberg said. “After more than two decades of botched and bungled efforts by EPA, it is long past time to clean up the site and address the concerns of the Ringwood community.”
"EPA has fallen down on the job from day one," Pallone said. "As the IG reported, the agency is simply terrible when it comes to community relations. EPA is going to need to do a lot more -- after four failed cleanups and a sad legacy of neglecting the community; it's time to do the job right."
While the IG report did not find that EPA's "actions or decision making were affected by the area's racial, cultural, or socioeconomic status," the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has declared Ringwood as an Environmental Justice Community. EPA also conducted an environmental justice assessment in response to a request made by Pallone in September 2005. That report found that the Ringwood community is an "adversely impacted area" and called for a more comprehensive review. Pallone requested such a review in May 2006.
A copy of the members' original IG request follows.
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