Exxon deal to be detailed Monday

TRENTON - The public on Monday will get its first chance to scrutinize the details of the Christie administration's proposed $225 million settlement with Exxon Mobil, starting the clock on a legal process that will last at least a month and giving vocal opponents an opportunity to persuade a judge to kill the deal.

Details of the agreement the New Jersey attorney general struck last month with the Texas oil company are to be published on the Department of Environmental Protection website.

News of the settlement came in early March when acting Attorney General John Hoffman announced the deal, the culmination of an 11-year lawsuit that accused Exxon of polluting the land and water around oil refineries in Linden and Bayonne in North Jersey.

The public will have 30 days to comment, and then the DEP will decide whether to approve the agreement, which it is expected to do.

Judge Michael Hogan will issue a ruling on the offer. If he does not sign off on it, he may decide what the damage award should be, though it is common with agreements like these for the judge to approve them.

Commenting on the settlement within the 30-day window gives the person commenting standing to pursue an appeal.

News of the proposed settlement has become a political lightning rod because a report in the court documents had estimated the state might recover up to $8.9 billion. Leaks of the deal appeared in the media before the attorney general discussed the details, and the Democratic-led Legislature accused the administration of accepting pennies on the dollar.

The state Senate passed a resolution deploring the deal and State Sen. Raymond J. Lesniak (D., Union) has buffeted the governor over it, publicizing his requests for information from the administration. He plans to hold a news conference Tuesday and said, "You can guarantee I'll be the first person in line" to comment publicly.

The administration has countered the Democrats by saying if the deal is approved, it would be the state's largest natural resources disaster settlement ever with an individual corporate entity.

The Passaic River settlement brought in $355 million in total from a number of companies stemming from contamination at the former Diamond Shamrock site in Newark.

The administration also said that it had recovered more money from settlements than previous administrations and that Exxon was still responsible for the cost of any cleanup at the sites.

"This should be a great environmental accomplishment for the state," said DEP spokesman Larry Hajna.

If the deal is approved, the settlement money would not be available until the start of the fiscal year - July 1 - at the earliest, Hoffman said last month.

How that money would be disbursed has also sparked fierce debate. Under current law and as Gov. Christie proposed in his 2016 budget, the first $50 million of money recovered from natural resources settlements would go toward site cleanup and the rest would go into the general fund.

The Legislature has sent Christie a bill that would require half of the money from settlements that are greater than $50 million to be spent on cleanup. Christie has until May to decide whether he'll veto the bill.