The Ironbound neighborhood of Newark, N.J., has been revitalized. The tree-lined river that runs beside it has not.
Half a century ago, the herbicide Agent Orange was manufactured along the banks of the Passaic River. Poison hosed off factory floors drained into the waterway, where it sank to the bottom and became toxic sludge. The estimated cost of cleaning it up and compensating for environmental damage could run as high as $11.8 billion.
Who will pay the bill? That's now a question for a federal bankruptcy court in Delaware. And its answer could determine whether other companies with billions of dollars in environmental liabilities can use the U.S. bankruptcy system to avoid them.
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