The Non-Financial Ledger

Picture a summer afternoon on Raritan Bay. The water catches the light. A kid digs in the sand near the seawall. Families park their cars and walk down to the beach that’s been there their whole lives. The sign says “Laurence Harbor.” It doesn’t say “EPA Superfund Site.” It doesn’t say “elevated lead levels detected in soil and sediment.” It doesn’t say “public health hazard.”

Nobody told them. Nobody fenced it off. Not in the 1960s when Charles Ludwig was hauling NL’s lead slag down Route 35. Not through the 1970s when the smelter kept running. Not in 1983 when Old Bridge Township bought the seawall property with full knowledge of what had been dumped there. Not until 2009, when EPA finally nailed up the fences and posted the warning signs that should have been there decades earlier.

For those decades, the contamination sat there, open to the public. Lead doesn’t announce itself. You can’t smell it or see it the way you’d see an oil slick. It infiltrates the soil, settles into sediment, migrates into surface water. It lodges in the bodies of children whose nervous systems are still forming. It accumulates in aquatic species and the birds that eat them. The damage is quiet, cumulative, and permanent.

The people who lived on the residential properties bordering the site to the east, west, and south didn’t choose to live next to a lead contamination zone. They chose a neighborhood near the water. What they got was lead, chromium, arsenic, antimony, and copper leaching into their ecological backyard, courtesy of industrial decisions made behind closed doors in corporate offices in Dallas, Wilmington, Houston, and London.

The wetlands at Margaret’s Creek didn’t get a say either. Those 47 acres of undeveloped wetland habitat absorbed decades of battery casings, furnace slag, and contaminated soil before anyone in authority thought to look. When they finally did look, in March 2009, the contamination was already there. The ecological damage to aquatic, terrestrial, and avian species is not a hypothetical. The federal complaint states it plainly: the presence of slag and battery casings “have produced adverse ecological effects to natural resources such as aquatic, terrestrial and avian species.”

These aren’t abstractions. These are the fish in the creek, the birds that feed on them, the people who cast a line off the western jetty thinking they were catching dinner. This is what it means when corporations externalise the cost of doing business. The profit stays in the balance sheet. The poison goes to the shore.

Legal Receipts: What the Complaint Actually Says

The federal complaint filed September 4, 2024 (Case 3:24-cv-8946) contains specific factual allegations drawn from agency records, property transactions, and regulatory findings. These are not accusations from environmental activists. This is the United States Department of Justice, on behalf of EPA, DOI, and NOAA.

“NL purchased the United Lead Co. in 1928 and assumed direct operation of a secondary lead smelting facility at 1050 State Street in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. NL’s smelting operations at the Perth Amboy facility continued through 1975.” U.S. v. NL Industries et al., Complaint ¶34

• This establishes that NL ran a lead smelting facility for 47 years, generating hazardous furnace slag and battery casing waste for nearly five decades.
• The company extracted and processed scrap batteries, scrap metal, dross, lead oxides, and battery plates, all of which produced waste containing lead and other metals that ended up at the site.

“NL hired Liberty Trucking Co. of Fords, New Jersey, to dispose of waste from NL’s Perth Amboy lead smelting operations, including furnace slag and battery casings.” U.S. v. NL Industries et al., Complaint ¶36

• NL did not dispose of its own waste. It contracted out the problem to a third party, creating a documented chain of custody that ends at the public waterfront.
• Liberty Trucking transported NL’s waste to properties owned by affiliated companies, all controlled by the same individual: Charles Ludwig, who was simultaneously President of Liberty Trucking, Ramble Realty Co., and Twin Anchors Marine Basin, Inc.

“Upon information and belief, in or around 1967, Charles Ludwig disposed of NL’s lead waste, including lead furnace slag and battery casings, on the Western Jetty and the adjacent land area which was owned by Ludwig through the Ramble Realty Co., Inc.” U.S. v. NL Industries et al., Complaint ¶46

• The Western Jetty is part of a federally authorized navigation project built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the late nineteenth century. Industrial lead waste was dumped directly onto federal infrastructure.
• The ownership structure of the Ludwig companies meant that the disposal contractor and the property owner were the same entity under different names, concentrating liability and obscuring the trail.

“At the time of its purchase in 1983, Old Bridge had knowledge that lead waste had been deposited at the property on which the Seawall was located.” U.S. v. NL Industries et al., Complaint ¶50

• Old Bridge Township (then called Madison Township) purchased contaminated land with documented prior knowledge of the lead waste deposits and is now named as a CERCLA defendant, liable as an owner of a facility from which there is a release of hazardous substances.
• This is not a case where the municipality was blindsided. The complaint is explicit: knowledge existed at the time of purchase. The public using that seawall after 1983 was not given the same information their government had.

“They concluded that, due to the elevated lead levels, a public health hazard exists at the Seawall in Laurence Harbor, the beach adjacent to and west of the Seawall, and the Western Jetty at the Cheesequake Creek Inlet, including the waterfront area immediately west of the inlet.” U.S. v. NL Industries et al., Complaint ¶53 (summarizing findings of NJ Dept. of Health and ATSDR)

• The finding of “public health hazard” is a formal regulatory determination, not a general concern. It covers the seawall, the adjacent beach, and the jetty: the entire public-facing waterfront of the site.
• This determination triggered EPA’s 2009 removal action, which installed permanent fences and warning signs, effectively closing a public recreational space because it had become too dangerous to use.

Societal Impact Mapping

Environmental Degradation

The complaint documents specific categories of ecological harm across all three site sectors, affecting multiple species groups and contaminating both aquatic and terrestrial habitat.

• The presence of lead furnace slag and battery casings has produced documented adverse ecological effects to aquatic, terrestrial, and avian species at the site. This is confirmed by EPA’s own Records of Decision and incorporated into the federal complaint.
• The Margaret’s Creek Sector, a 47-acre undeveloped wetland, accumulated battery casings, furnace slag, and contaminated soil and sediment over decades of dumping. Wetlands of this type function as critical habitat buffers; their contamination propagates toxins through aquatic food chains.
• Contaminated soil, sediment, and surface water are simultaneously present across all three sectors, creating multiple exposure pathways for wildlife and suppressing the natural resource services those ecosystems provide to the surrounding area.
• The Western Jetty at Cheesequake Creek Inlet, a federal Army Corps of Engineers navigation structure, was used as a dump site for industrial lead waste, contaminating the waterway and the adjacent land area on both sides of the inlet.
• EPA’s Record of Decision (issued May 23, 2013) estimated approximately 11,000 cubic yards of slag and source material at the site and an additional 80,000 cubic yards of contaminated soils and sediments containing lead above cleanup levels. These volumes represent the physical scale of the ecological injury.
• NOAA and the U.S. Department of the Interior are co-trustees of the natural resources and initiated a Natural Resource Damages Assessment (NRDA), confirming injury to ecological resources and human use of those resources.

Public Health

Federal and state health authorities issued a formal public health hazard finding for the site. This is the regulatory threshold that triggers emergency action, and it covers the entire public-facing waterfront.

• The NJ Department of Health and Senior Services, acting with the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), formally determined a “public health hazard” exists at the seawall in Laurence Harbor, the adjacent beach, and the Western Jetty. This covers every point of public access to the waterfront.
• Lead is the primary contaminant of concern. There is no safe level of lead exposure for children. Lead damages the developing nervous system, causing cognitive impairment, behavioral problems, and reduced IQ at exposure levels far below what would cause visible symptoms.
• The site also contains chromium, antimony, arsenic, and copper as confirmed hazardous substances. Arsenic is a known human carcinogen. Chromium and antimony carry their own documented toxicity profiles for long-term low-level exposure.
• Contamination was present in soil, sediment, and surface water simultaneously, creating dermal, inhalation, and ingestion exposure routes for anyone using the beach or fishing the waterway, including children who played in the sand.
• EPA did not install fences or post warnings until 2009. The contamination was first detected in seawall soils in 2007 and confirmed in both the seawall and jetty areas in 2008. The site was publicly accessible during the entire period between contamination and enforcement.
• The Margaret’s Creek Sector was not identified and added to the site until March 2009, meaning it was actively accumulating and potentially spreading contamination without any public warning for an additional period before inclusion.

Economic Inequality

The financial burden of cleaning up industrial contamination created by profitable corporations was transferred to government agencies funded by taxpayers. The corporations retained profits from the activities that generated the waste.

• As of May 31, 2023, the United States had incurred $32,268,119 in unreimbursed response costs at the site. These are public funds, drawn from the federal budget, spent on remediating a mess created by private industrial operations for private profit.
• The cleanup is explicitly described as ongoing. EPA expects to incur future response costs and the complaint seeks a declaratory judgment to bind defendants to liability in subsequent proceedings, an indication that the total bill has not yet been calculated.
• New Jersey’s Spill Compensation Fund also incurred cleanup and removal costs, adding state taxpayer exposure to the federal costs already documented.
• The site is located in Laurence Harbor and Sayreville, working-class coastal communities in Middlesex County. The loss of public beach access, recreational fishing, and safe waterfront use is a concrete economic and quality-of-life harm borne by residents who had no role in the contamination.
• CERCLA’s strict, joint and several liability standard means that each defendant is liable for the entirety of the response costs regardless of their individual share of the waste, a legal tool designed precisely to prevent corporations from escaping accountability through shared-blame arguments.
• NL Industries, listed at Three Lincoln Center, 5430 LBJ Freeway, Dallas, Texas, the lead defendant, is a corporation that operated for profit in New Jersey and bears primary responsibility for the contamination. Its corporate offices are more than 1,500 miles from the communities living next to the mess it created.

The “Cost of a Life” Metric

The federal government has been paying to clean up this site while the corporations named as defendants have not reimbursed a cent of those costs. Here is what taxpayers have already absorbed.

What Now?

The lawsuit is filed. The contamination is documented. The question is whether the corporations and the municipality will finally pay for what they created, or whether the legal system will produce decades of delay while the bill stays on the public tab.

Corporate Defendants Named in Case 3:24-cv-8946

• NL Industries, Inc. — Lead defendant. Operated Perth Amboy smelter 1928–1975. Corporate address: Three Lincoln Center, 5430 LBJ Freeway, Suite 1700, Dallas, TX 75244.
• Old Bridge Township, NJ — Municipality. Named as facility owner. Purchased seawall site in 1983 with documented knowledge of lead waste. Address: 1 Old Bridge Plaza, Old Bridge, NJ 08857.
• Honeywell International, Inc. — Successor to C&D Batteries and Prestolite Batteries. Address: 101 Columbia Road, Morristown, NJ 07960.
• Johnson Controls, Inc. — Successor to Globe-Union, Inc. Address: 5757 N. Green Bay Avenue, Glendale, WI 53201.
• Rio Tinto plc / Rio Tinto Metals Limited / Rio Tinto Minerals Inc. — Successors to Capper Pass & Son Ltd. Headquarters: 6 St James’s Square, London, UK.
• E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (now EIDP, Inc.) — Address: 1007 Market Street, Wilmington, DE 19898.
• Atlantic Richfield Co. — Successor to Anaconda Co. and International Smelting and Refining Co. Address: 501 Westlake Park Blvd., Houston, TX 77079.
• C&D Technologies, Inc., Clarios, LLC, Crown Battery Manufacturing Co., East Penn Manufacturing Co., EnerSys Delaware, Inc., FMC Corp., Gould Electronics Inc., Joe Krentzman & Son, Inc., Rae Storage Battery Co., Tiffen Acquisition Corp., Tiffen Co., LLC, Wimco Metals, Inc., Yuasa Battery, Inc., Atlantic Battery Co., Inc., Bixon Liquidation Corp. — All named as arrangers of disposal of hazardous waste at NL’s Perth Amboy facility.

Watchlist: Regulatory Bodies with Jurisdiction

• U.S. EPA Region 2 (290 Broadway, New York, NY 10007) — Lead federal agency for site remediation. Contact: Damaris Urdaz, Olga Pappas, Brian Nguyen listed in the complaint. File public comments and information requests directly.
• U.S. Department of Justice, Environmental Enforcement Section — Filed the complaint. Attorneys Mae Bowen (mae.bowen@usdoj.gov) and Rachel Hankey (Rachel.hankey@usdoj.gov) are listed as trial attorneys.
• NOAA — Co-trustee of natural resources at the site. Responsible for assessing and recovering damages for marine and coastal ecosystem injury.
• U.S. Department of the Interior — Co-trustee. Responsible for wildlife and terrestrial resource damages assessment (NRDA).
• NJ Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) — State co-plaintiff and co-trustee. Oversees New Jersey Spill Compensation Fund claims and state natural resource damages.

Grassroots Action: Where to Put Your Energy

• Contact Old Bridge Township directly. As a named municipal defendant, local officials are accountable to residents. Attend township council meetings. Demand a public accounting of what the municipality knew in 1983, what residents were told, and what the township is doing now to protect residents during the ongoing cleanup.
• Connect with Middlesex County environmental and public health organizations. Local mutual aid networks and environmental justice groups in Middlesex County, NJ are the front line for residents affected by the site. They need legal literacy volunteers, local researchers, and people who can help affected families understand their rights under CERCLA and the NJ Spill Act.
• Track the docket. Case 3:24-cv-8946, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. PACER (pacer.gov) allows public access to federal court filings. Any settlement, consent decree, or motion in this case is a public document. Watch for consent decrees that let corporations pay pennies on the dollar and call it resolved.
• Support Superfund accountability advocacy nationally. CERCLA’s effectiveness depends on adequate EPA funding and staffing. Organizations that advocate for Superfund reauthorization and funding adequacy directly affect whether sites like Raritan Bay get cleaned up or sit on the NPL for another generation.
• If you lived near the site, document your story. Natural resource damages assessments consider human use loss. Community members who used the beach, fished the jetty, or were warned away after 2009 have documented testimony that matters to the NRDA process. Environmental law clinics in New Jersey can advise on how to participate.