Date Issued: December 8, 2010
The Pace Press
University Students Settle Eight Year Case against ExxonMobil
By: Julia Yeung
The University’s Law School students won an eight-year long case of federal litigation against ExxonMobil Corporation Nov. 17. The Hudson Riverkeeper was represented for over six years by Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic and by more than two dozen of their legal interns in a case of oil contamination in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and nearby Newtown Creek against ExxonMobil.
New York State (NYS) Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and Hudson Riverkeeper announced the result that requires ExxonMobil to begin a detailed cleanup of their oil and any related contamination at their Greenpointfacility and the surrounding community.
ExxonMobil has to pay $25 million for penalties, costs and local environment improvement. The company will also establish $19.5 million “Environmental Benefit Project” fund to aid Greenpoint. This is considered to be the largest single payment for this purpose in NYS history.
The case was brought to attention by Hudson Riverkeeper, when it was found that tens of millions of gallons were being dumped and polluting the Greenpoint community area.
The actual discovery of the pollution dated back to around the 1890s, when local activists discovered many companies, especially oil refineries and New York Petroleum districts, dumping or leaking solvents of waste material into the area.
There were more than 50 refineries in Greenpoint in 1870 and by 1892, Standard Oilowned most of them. Mobil is a descendant from Standard Oil, and merged together with Exxon in 1998.
“We got involved as a result of the role we play as Riverkeeper’s outside litigation counsel. Since the late 1980s, we have handled virtually all of the Riverkeeper’s litigation in the courts,” Daniel Estrin said. Estrin is the supervising attorney at the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic and an adjunct professor of law at the University’s Law School.
The staff and law students at Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic had been working on the case since 2002. In 2004, the clinic had filed their complaint in federal court after an extensive investigation and in January 2007, Cuomo took office and filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil.
“I think that the Greenpoint community will benefit immensely as a result of the settlement…While it will take several years for all of the investigation and cleanup activities to be conducted, the process will now begin in earnest and should ultimately result in significant quantity of life improvements for the community,” Estrin said.
The federal government had currently added Newtown Creek to the National Priorities List, naming the creek a “Superfund” site that is scheduled for extensive cleanup. The cleanupwould involve the use of an oil-sucking infrastructure.
An underground pipe would extract water from the aquifer, which lowers the watertable and creates a “cone of depression.” The extracted oil would be drained into the cone and get pumped out and re-refined and the groundwater is filtered and discharged into Newtown Creek. The process is estimated to be at least 20 years of cleanup involved at the current rate.
“Our law students have gained invaluable experience in litigating, and ultimately settling, a hugecase against the biggest company in the world. It typically takes students years to get this type of experience after they graduate from law school, pass the bar exam and start practicing law.
“Our students have gotten to practice law [under our supervision] in their second and third years of law school. Potential employers place great value in this kind of ‘hands on’ experience,” Estrin said.
The pollution is said to be the largest known oil spill in American history. The contaminated area is 55 acres, which is about the size of TriBeCa. It is expected that even after the cleanup, there will still be remaining harmful material left behind, due to many years of pollution.
“I hope our students take away from these experiences that with their passion and persistence they can take on any adversary, no matter how large, to help ‘right’ wrongs that would otherwise continue unchecked,” Estrin said.
The Pace Press
University Students Settle Eight Year Case against ExxonMobil
By: Julia Yeung
The University’s Law School students won an eight-year long case of federal litigation against ExxonMobil Corporation Nov. 17. The Hudson Riverkeeper was represented for over six years by Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic and by more than two dozen of their legal interns in a case of oil contamination in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and nearby Newtown Creek against ExxonMobil.
New York State (NYS) Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and Hudson Riverkeeper announced the result that requires ExxonMobil to begin a detailed cleanup of their oil and any related contamination at their Greenpointfacility and the surrounding community.
ExxonMobil has to pay $25 million for penalties, costs and local environment improvement. The company will also establish $19.5 million “Environmental Benefit Project” fund to aid Greenpoint. This is considered to be the largest single payment for this purpose in NYS history.
The case was brought to attention by Hudson Riverkeeper, when it was found that tens of millions of gallons were being dumped and polluting the Greenpoint community area.
The actual discovery of the pollution dated back to around the 1890s, when local activists discovered many companies, especially oil refineries and New York Petroleum districts, dumping or leaking solvents of waste material into the area.
There were more than 50 refineries in Greenpoint in 1870 and by 1892, Standard Oilowned most of them. Mobil is a descendant from Standard Oil, and merged together with Exxon in 1998.
“We got involved as a result of the role we play as Riverkeeper’s outside litigation counsel. Since the late 1980s, we have handled virtually all of the Riverkeeper’s litigation in the courts,” Daniel Estrin said. Estrin is the supervising attorney at the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic and an adjunct professor of law at the University’s Law School.
The staff and law students at Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic had been working on the case since 2002. In 2004, the clinic had filed their complaint in federal court after an extensive investigation and in January 2007, Cuomo took office and filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil.
“I think that the Greenpoint community will benefit immensely as a result of the settlement…While it will take several years for all of the investigation and cleanup activities to be conducted, the process will now begin in earnest and should ultimately result in significant quantity of life improvements for the community,” Estrin said.
The federal government had currently added Newtown Creek to the National Priorities List, naming the creek a “Superfund” site that is scheduled for extensive cleanup. The cleanupwould involve the use of an oil-sucking infrastructure.
An underground pipe would extract water from the aquifer, which lowers the watertable and creates a “cone of depression.” The extracted oil would be drained into the cone and get pumped out and re-refined and the groundwater is filtered and discharged into Newtown Creek. The process is estimated to be at least 20 years of cleanup involved at the current rate.
“Our law students have gained invaluable experience in litigating, and ultimately settling, a hugecase against the biggest company in the world. It typically takes students years to get this type of experience after they graduate from law school, pass the bar exam and start practicing law.
“Our students have gotten to practice law [under our supervision] in their second and third years of law school. Potential employers place great value in this kind of ‘hands on’ experience,” Estrin said.
The pollution is said to be the largest known oil spill in American history. The contaminated area is 55 acres, which is about the size of TriBeCa. It is expected that even after the cleanup, there will still be remaining harmful material left behind, due to many years of pollution.
“I hope our students take away from these experiences that with their passion and persistence they can take on any adversary, no matter how large, to help ‘right’ wrongs that would otherwise continue unchecked,” Estrin said.
