News Update: DuPont/Pompton Lakes

By Amanda Valenti

Recently, residents have begun to sue over the DuPont pollution, arguing that the value of their property declined due to the immense amount of pollution.

According to NorthJersey.com, roughly 50 residents filed complaints in state Superior Court in Passaic County by Weitz and Luxenberg, the New York law firm that is representing those with complaints. A common name that showed up was Royle Systems Group, a sales and manufacturing company based in Oakland, NJ. Each case will be treated individually, so the outcomes may be different along with different settlements based on the two companies under fire. Close to 600-acres of land is considered to be contaminated and the town is working hard to clean the land at a steady pace.

According the NorthJersey.com, a protest of 12 people occurred on the exterior of DuPont’s information center. The people want more efforts and information provided about the clean up. The center has said they plan to have someone on site five days a week.

Workers for DuPont were confused as to why the protesters were outside complaining that they wanted more information. Had they went inside, there was information and fact sheets about the issue available to the public. An issue that has risen from DuPont is the vapors that are coming up from the ground and into homeowners’ basements. DuPont agreed to pay to install ventilation in the homes to get rid of the vapors; making the homes safe again.

Recently, DuPont has made a Facebook page in order to inform the public in a more readily available way. The page states, “EPA is working closely with the New Jersey DEP and other state and federal partners to ensure that contamination from the DuPont Pompton Lakes Works site is properly addressed and that people living in the community are protected, informed and involved in site cleanup decision-making."

They will also have someone manning the site in order to get the most recent information up and also control comments left by users. They state, “This group will serve as a way for EPA to share information with the public and for the public to raise and discuss issues related to the Dupont/Pompton Lakes site. EPA's community involvement coordinator, David Kluesner, will post information on this page and also serve as its moderator."

This is an up-to-date way to get information out to people who are curious and would like frequent updates. By making information available on Facebook, it will also allow people who do not know much about the issue to educate themselves and interact with others. This should work in favor of DuPont.

DuPont plans to continue the efforts put forth to clean the pollution they have caused over the years. It has been a long time in the works, with much more to be done. There are no plans on stopping until homes and lands are revitalized to health standards.