one of the country's most expensive environmental cleanups continues to drag and it's right here in New Jersey the Environmental Protection Agency recently ordered Occidental Chemical Corporation to begin design work on a cleanup plan for a Nine Mile section of the lower Passaic River it's part of a roughly two billion dollar effort to remove cancer-causing dioxin pcbs and other heavy metals from the Waterway but Occidental points out it wasn't the only company to foul in the river and it argues the EPA is letting others off easy as part of our ongoing series Hazard NJ examining Superfund sites around the state senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan has the latest on this massive cleanup effort the communities around the Passaic have been incredibly patient more patient than anyone would expect of them so they really deserve to get their River back environmental Advocate Michelle langa says almost 40 years after EPA workers in Moon suits started cleaning up the diamond Alkali Superfund Site in Newark efforts drag on the factory sites now capped Walling off the deadly dioxin used to make agent orange but 17 miles of contaminated riverbed remain from Newark on North to the Dundee Dam in Clifton the EPA last week ordered Occidental chemical or oxychem the company that bought and owns Diamond Alkali to start planning work on the upper nine miles of Riverbed this does include sampling to identify contamination boundaries and then oxycam will also conduct studies to assess the river bottom the shoreline and other aspects of the river in preparation of the clean enough the EPA considers oxychem a primary polluter although multiple sites companies and people along the river also dump toxic waste into the Passaic about 85 of those companies in a consent decree last December agreed to pay 150 million dollars in exchange for release from further liability for cleanup costs while langa would have liked a bigger payment she's pleased to see the legal Log Jam finally moving we support the epa's efforts and we're happy that they're pushing for things to move more quickly for the river but oxycams deeply unhappy with the settlement a company website claims the decree lets polluters off the hook and says the EPA wants New Jersey taxpayers to pay for cleanup of the Passaic River it lists 42 towns in the Passaic Valley sewage commission it alleges will be left holding the bag for close to two billion dollars in total cleanup costs oxychems reached out to towns on the list like North Haledon lobbying them to oppose the consent decree and raising alarming questions how else would they get the remainder of the funds if they're going to get 150 million and it's going to cost 2 billion who's going to give them the rest of the money mayor Randy George says his Town's not responsible the EPA says it's using the super fund law to Target polluters our expectation is that a hundred percent of the river will be cleaned up by all of the responsible parties and oxycam is one of the responsible parties but oxycam wants to sue the 85 companies in the consent to Korean force them to pay a lot more than 150 million it claims the towns and sewage commission are potentially liable because epa's determined that the chemicals that went from the industrial sites went through their sewer systems and therefore they're on the hook but langa an attorney for the New York New Jersey beekeeper calls oxycam's argument a stretch I don't see how that would happen or how that would work or how any Court would would really buy that as a charge I don't necessarily hold it against them for trying to you know reduce that that financial burden but I would much rather see them put that effort into you know getting the design done she says oxycam's tactics could further delay the cleanup the public comment period on the consent decree closes March 23rd I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News