ALBANY – Setting an important environmental precedent in the Northern District, a federal judge is allowing New York to recover from an alleged corporate polluter payments the State made to reimburse a town for landfill clean-up costs in the Syracuse area.
U.S. District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy said the State is entitled, through the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), to recover more than $2.2 million it gave to the town of Van Buren. The company, Moulds Holding Corp., had expressed concern that CERCLA recovery would expose it to double damages if the town also sought reimbursement from the firm. Judge McAvoy, however, rejected that argument.
