Opinion ID: 3009785
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Bridgeport Site

Text: Chemical Leaman is a tank truck company specializing in the transportation of hazardous chemicals including carcinogens. The Bridgeport terminal at issue here was one of many terminals that Chemical Leaman maintained across the country. These terminals included facilities where Chemical Leaman would routinely wash the trailers that transported the hazardous chemicals after those chemicals had been delivered. The rinse water contaminated with residue from the inside of the trailers was disposed of in a wastewater treatment system that is at the heart of this law suit. The Bridgeport wastewater treatment system consisted of a series of unlined ponds dug into the soil to catch and purportedly purify the contaminated washwater. Apparently, the designers of this system believed that the sandy bottom of the unlined ponds would purify the contaminated rinsewater by acting as a kind of natural filter that would strain the impurities from the contaminated water as it percolated into the soil. The facility operated in this manner from 1960 to 1975. It was designed and built by Harry Elston, Chemical Leaman's Manager of Real Estate and Engineering, in consultation with Edwin Wagner, a 5 professional sanitary engineer with experience in the design of waste treatment facilities. Elston made virtually all of Chemical Leaman's decisions regarding waste management and disposal. From 1960-62, the wastewater treatment system consisted of a series of three unlined settling and percolation ponds, connected by tee pipes. Elston testified that the depth of the ponds was limited to five feet to allow sunlight to enhance the growth of aerobic microbes that fed on the trace amounts of chemicals in the rinsewater. This natural process was enhanced by anaerobic microbes acting in the ponds and lagoons to biodegrade the chemical particulates in the rinsewater. Gravity separated heavier materials from lighter ones in the first pond, and the floating contaminants were then periodically skimmed from the top of the ponds, and the settled materials were periodically dredged from the bottom of the ponds. The natural processes of aerobic and anaerobic microbial biodegradation would break down the trace chemical constituents which remained in the rinsewater. A tee pipe connected the first and second ponds so as to prevent the precipitated and floating materials from passing into the second pond. Thus, only cleaner water could reach the second pond. When this rinsewater reached the second pond, the retention, phased gravity separation, percolation and microbial biodegradation process was repeated. Only the rinsewater in the middle depth of that pond was allowed to flow into the third pond. These processes continued in the third pond, which received the cleanest water as a result of the processes 6 occurring in the first two ponds. Elston testified at trial that the Bridgeport site was specially selected for its suitability for this kind of percolation system. In 1962, Chemical Leaman augmented this system by adding two larger aeration lagoons and a final settling lagoon with a limestone bed. Each of these lagoons was designed to replicate and enhance the treatment afforded by the original three ponds. In addition, the fourth and fifth lagoons were equipped with spray aeration devices to increase the oxygen level in the lagoons and, thereby, increase aerobic microbial biodegradation and evaporation. From the very beginning of this system, the final impoundment pond contained an overflow pipe at the top end of the berms which fed into an adjacent swamp. The pipe was apparently intended as a safety valve to prevent a rupture in the berms and a resulting massive loss of rinsewater in the event of a heavy rain. Between 1960 and 1975, there were repeated discharges of treated rinsewater through the overflow pipe to the adjacent swamp. Elston described this discharge as a trickle, and another witness testified that the amount coming out of the overflow pipe was usually about a fraction of an inch. Nevertheless, a 1970 New Jersey Department of Health sample of the swamp water that the rinsewater trickled into revealed that this trickle was highly pollutional. Moreover, by 1974 the path of the trickle from the last impoundment could be easily seen by looking for a 75 foot wide lane of dead trees in the swamp. 7