On Aug. 29, the Superior Court of New Jersey entered summary judgment in favor of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, or NJDEP, and against Exxon Mobil Corp. on the NJDEP’s claims for public nuisance in NJDEP v. Exxon Mobil Corp. The ruling demonstrates the continuing vitality of a common law cause of action to abate pollution causing injury to the public. It also underscores the public’s right to control the use of resources held in trust for the public even where the state has conveyed the property on which the resources are located to a private party.
The basic facts of the case are of no surprise to persons familiar with industrial development in the early 1900s. Exxon’s predecessors operated oil refineries in Linden, N.J., at the Bayway site and Bayonne, N.J., at the Bayonne site, both of which are near New York Harbor. A waterfront area of the Bayway site borders on the Arthur Kill, and two streams flowing through the site join to form Morses Creek. The Bayonne site is likewise situated near navigable waters. The two refineries were operated for several decades as an integrated petrochemical facility.
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