
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 20, 1990                   TAG: 9007200603
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JERSEY CITY, N.J.                                LENGTH: Short

CHROMIUM CLEANUP COSTS $80 MILLION

A chemical maker has agreed to pay New Jersey $80 million to clean up homes and businesses contaminated with chromium waste.

PPG Industries Inc. of Pittsburgh also consented Thursday to pay a $2.5 million fine and $900,000 for administrative costs.

"The state is satisfied with this agreement," said John Hagerty, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. "Certainly it will go a long way toward revitalizing Jersey City."

The state blamed the company and two other companies for the chromium contamination of homes and businesses in Jersey City, Kearny and Secaucus.

Exposure to chromium can damage lungs, livers and kidneys, cause skin lesions and, in some cases, cause lung cancer.

Chromium is a byproduct created in the extraction of chrome for bumpers, chemicals and electrical components.

The three companies are successors to companies that ran chromium processing plants in the area from 1905 to 1971. They sold or gave away chromium-tainted slag for landfill.

Occidental Chemical Corp. of Dallas agreed in May to pay the state $51.5 million for cleanup and a $2.5 million fine.

The state was still negotiating with the third company, Allied-Signal Inc. of Morris Township.

State officials estimate as much as 3 million tons of chromium is buried under houses and businesses in Hudson County.

by CNB