In the early 1960s, the Ford Motor Corporation purchased 900 acres of land in Ringwood, NJ, which was home to over 900 members of the Ramapough Lenape Nation from the Turtle Clan. The land was then used as a dumping ground for millions of gallons of paint sludge and other industrial and hazardous waste that was generated from Ford's nearby assembly plant in Mahwah, NJ.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared the site a Superfund priority in 1984 and has subsequently removed and relisted the site several times due to failed environmental remediation. Although the land was heavily contaminated, Ford gave the land to a Community Housing organization that eventually placed women, men, and children on the toxic landfill site as affordable housing for the Ramapough people in the 1970s. Ramapough children used to play with the bright paints and debris of the landfill. Additionally, rather than honor the mines as an historic site where the first cannonballs and iron chain across the Hudson at West Point were made, Ford simply dumped in these mines as well.

During the years of dumping, industrial waste was pushed into pits and mineshafts and paint sludge hardened and appeared as slabs near streams. Levels of lead and antimony have been found in paint sludge near residences that are considered 100x beyond standard safety levels. Since Ringwood has historically been a center of population for the Ramapough Munsee Indians of the Turtle Clan, numerous families in the community have been affected by high rates of cancer and adverse health effects from contamination near their homes and in the groundwater.

Fast forward to today where the need for clean up still urgent yet a Consent Decree is being proposed that will literally cover up the pollution in Ringwood by "capping" the landfill site instead of full environmental remediation. Environmentalists are deeply concerned about contaminants getting into groundwater supplies and threatening the Wanaque Reservoir that serves 4 million residents, a quarter of New Jersey's population.

This is why we are asking YOU to please submit a public comments to a due date extended to Monday, July 29th urging the U.S. Assistant Attorney General and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to protect the people of Ringwood and reject the proposed Consent Order.