A class action lawsuit filed in Middlesex County Superior Court on Jan. 31 seeks damages for Carteret residents around U.S. Metals smelting site
CARTERET -- It's been five years since the owners of the U.S. Metals Refining Company agreed to test the dirt around its former smelting site along Arthur Kill and clean up any potential contamination.
Now, alarmed by the findings recently mailed out, borough homeowners have banded together to file a suit against the company. The class action suit alleges that 80 years of extracting copper has polluted nearby properties, exposing residents to unsafe levels of lead and arsenic.
"This kind of contamination can be crushing to property values," said Steve German, an attorney for residents. "People have invested in their homes. This is where their lives are. This lawsuit is about people who are fearful for their health in the future."
The lawsuit filed in Middlesex County Superior Court on Jan. 31 seeks damages for the Carteret residents whose property's value may have decreased around the former U.S. Metals Refining Company site at 300 Middlesex Ave.
The suit also seeks to force the company to cover the costs of specialized medical monitoring for the residents, which could total to about 100 people.
German said that although no one in the area has shown any signs of illness, it was necessary for the residents to be continually monitored beyond standard physicals for any possible sicknesses due to toxic and hazardous materials from the refinery.
The current owner of the site, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, said it has not been served with the civil suit.
The borough welcomes the lawsuit from its residents, according to Carteret Mayor Daniel J. Reiman, who said the civil suit covers issues the municipality couldn't address in its lawsuit.
"We've gone after any of these chemical operations that have done business in Carteret and have left without cleaning up," Reiman said.
The town filed intent to sue U.S. Metals in 2012 after decades of unfinished remediation. Borough officials eventually struck a deal with the company to test 60 properties closest to the site and clean up any contaminated soil in exchange for a five-year stay in their legal action.
"That deadline is coming up fast," Reiman said.
In letters obtained by NJ Advance Media sent to homeowners, the company said the lead levels found in November at 2-feet deep were almost four times the state standard.
In another round of testing in December, the levels near the same area were well above state standards.
"Lead is commonly found in soil, especially in urban area," said Larry Hanja, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The samples also revealed levels of arsenic between 10 and 20 parts per million above local standards a foot below the same areas.
In both sets of tests, the levels of lead and arsenic were at state standards level or slightly elevated in samples taken from the surface to a foot down.
"(U.S. Metals) is responsible for the clean-up," Hanja said, citing state regulations. "They are acting responsibly and have provided updates on their activity. They are following our rules."
On Tuesday, borough officials announced that U.S. Metals was expanding their testing area from the original properties surrounding the site of the smelting operation.
"We would have hoped this testing would have been done by now," Reiman said, noting the borough asked the company to test beyond the adjacent areas years ago. "They didn't believe it was necessary."
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, the parent company of the former factory, would not comment on why testing was expanded.
In an emailed statement, the company said, "USMR has completed remediation of most of the former smelter site and has commenced a program to sample, and if necessary, clean up soil that exceeds regulatory thresholds at residential and commercial properties near the historic smelter site."
Borough officials said the testing area has been expanded to include properties northwest of the US Metals site north to Romanowski Street, west to Linden Street and south to Arthur Avenue.
"The extent of the contamination is much bigger than what was originally thought," German said, referring to the recent results received by residents.
NJDEP Licensed Site Remediation will oversee the project.
A judge ruled in 2009 that USMR's contamination safeguards were "inadequate, defective, and often non-functional," and its "smelter spewed forth enormous amounts of contaminating materials."
Amax Realty, which owned a portion of the facility, is also named in the suit and could not be reached for comment.
Craig McCarthy may be reached at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig and on Facebook here. Find NJ.com on Facebook.