Marcal agrees to $3 million environmental response claim settlement

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, July 26 - Marcal Paper Mills, Inc. has reached a $3 million settlement with the United States on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior and the Department of Commerce in connection with claims for recovery of environmental response costs, according to a company news release.

According to the motion filed Thursday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey, the settlement gives the United States a $3 million unsecured claim against Marcal for the recovery of environmental response costs, of which $2.16 million will go to the EPA for its response to hazardous substances and $840,000 for the DOI and Department of Commerce to cover costs of natural resource damage assessment.

Also under the settlement, Marcal may continue to release trace amounts of polychlorinated biphenyls and chlorodibenzo-p-dioxins and furans at its Diamond Alkali Superfund Site.

"We are pleased that we could work together to quickly settle this claim for the benefit of all parties and cut short an otherwise protracted and costly legal battle with the EPA to prove the company's innocence," Marcal paper chairman and chief executive officer Nicholas Marcalus said in the release.

"This settlement recognizes that Marcal Paper, the largest recycler of paper in New Jersey, takes its responsibility to the community and the environment seriously. It also recognizes that the company is in compliance with all required state and federal permits to operate the facility in Elmwood Park.

"With this matter behind us, we can focus our full attention on the company's restructuring, Marcalus added."

A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 17.

Marcal Paper Mills, an Elmwood Park, N.J., manufacturer and distributor of bath tissue, kitchen towels, napkins and facial tissue, filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 30, 2006. Its Chapter 11 case number is 06-21886.

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