ExxonMobil lawyer defends $225M settlement with N.J.

TRENTON - ExxonMobil Corp.'s chief lawyer on Wednesday defended the firm's tentative $225 million settlement with New Jersey in a pollution case, saying the $8.9 billion the state sought at trial last year was "devoid of any scientific or economic legitimacy."

New Jersey Democrats and environmentalists have attacked the Christie administration's proposed settlement as a sellout to polluters. Two state senators have vowed to try to block it in court.

But ExxonMobil general counsel Jack Balagia said Wednesday that the state's initial $8.9 billion claim was based on a faulty report.

New Jersey pushed the higher figure as a "high-stakes negotiating tactic" to force a settlement, he wrote in a blog post on the company's website.

The Stratus Consulting report, commissioned by the state after it sued Exxon in 2004 over 1,500 polluted acres, wrongfully calculated damages going back decades before "passage of the New Jersey law that is the basis for the state's claims," Balagia wrote.

The report also assumed that damages would continue for another century, Balagia wrote.

Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, countered that unlike federal law, "there is no statute of limitation on environmental violations" in the Garden State.

Balagia said the report failed to show that ExxonMobil's discharge of hazardous substances caused contamination of natural resources. Plus, most of the land at its two North Jersey sites is private property, where natural resources were scarce, he said.

Tittel said that was irrelevant. The state's "wetlands and tidal areas are held in the public trust and belong to the people whether they are on public or private property," he said in a statement. "If those resources are destroyed, even on private property, the public must be compensated."

The Christie administration has hailed the settlement as the largest environmental settlement with a corporate defendant in state history.

Before last year's trial, ExxonMobil was already required to remediate the contaminated sites. All that was left to determine was how much the company owed the state in damages for the "lost value" or destruction of natural resources at its sites.

The settlement also would resolve claims at 16 other sites.

The administration published the settlement this month in the New Jersey Register. It is open for public comment until June 5 and must be approved by a Superior Court judge.

Members of the public may submit comments by e-mailing ExxonMobilBaywaySettlement@dep.nj.gov, referencing "Exxon Mobil Bayway Settlement" in the subject line.