US Tronox will fight $280m creosote clean-up suit

12 September 2008 18:08  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--US pigments producer Tronox denied on Friday that it is liable for at least $280m (€202m), the amount the federal government spent to clean up a former creosote plant in New Jersey, according to a corporate filing.

Tronox said it had never operated the site, and it intends to fight the suit.

The suit concerns a federally designated clean-up site in Manville, New Jersey, according to court documents.

A creosote plant operated at the site from roughly 1910 to 1955, according to court documents.

In 1997, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began investigating the site to determine the extent of creosote contamination in the soil, the suit said.

The US linked Tronox to the last company that operated the site, Federal Creosoting, according to the suit. As such, Tronox should pay at least $280m in clean-up expenses.

Tronox's parent firm Kerr-McGee Oil Industries had acquired the assets of Federal Creosoting after the site had closed, according to court documents.

($1 = €0.72)

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By: Al Greenwood
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