Jersey City property owners will receive $5 million from PPG Industries as per the terms of a proposed agreement over a class action filed against the company claiming that waste from a former chromium plant presented health risks and lowered property values.
The two defendants named in the lawsuit are PPG, a Pittsburgh-based paint and coatings company, who operated a chrome factory on Garfield Avenue from 1954 to 1963, and Honeywell International Inc., a successor to Mutual Chemical Company of America.
The lawsuit was filed in 2010 by three residents who owned property on Jersey City’s south side. The suit alleged that the defendants dumped wastes, including the carcinogenic byproduct hexavalent chromium, and the hazardous materials were used for fill at construction sites across the city.
In 2015, Honeywell settled the lawsuit for $10 million and paid roughly $3,000 to about 2,000 residents across the former West Side Avenue plant, where it dumped waste for more than 50 years until the mid-20th century.
PPG was held liable for a $367 million site cleanup by a federal appeals court in a separate order in May. Under the current settlement deal, current and former owners of roughly 1,500 properties in Bergen-Lafayette would approximately receive between $1,000 and $2,500, depending on the location of their homes.
The settlement agreement does not include any admissibility of wrongdoing from the company. U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas will approve the settlement, which is scheduled to be heard in January.
