OxyChem Expands Cleanup Offer in Superfund Site Liability Fight

A dispute over cleanup of New Jersey’s polluted Passaic River could be nearing a breakthrough after a chemical giant proposed to sweeten its $441 million cleanup offer, which comes with some strings attached.

The latest offer by Occidental Chemical Corp., outlined in a June 27 letter to the Environmental Protection Agency, would keep its original January 2021 offer on the table to pay nearly a half a billion dollars, which is the entire tab for the design and remedial action along the upper nine miles of the Passaic River.

But the new offer for a “staged process” to coordinate the ...