Ten years later, the issue of who pays for a Kiddie Kollege cleanup still may not be decided.
It's difficult to believe that the "who pays?" portion of the Kiddie Kollege saga goes on, a full decade after state officials abruptly closed down the daycare center upon finding that the youngsters housed there had been exposed to hazardous mercury.
Just last week, an appeals court ruled on who is liable for cleanup costs at the site, and who can escape financial responsibility.
Kiddie Kollege was operated out of a former Franklin Township thermometer factory that never should have been turned into a daycare, surely not without a thorough cleanup. The township, as well as the building owners who rented out the daycare space, and the former factory operator, have been challenging their liability since Day One -- even though the state Department of Environmental Protection had issued reports indicating the need for site remediation.
On July 28, 2006, Kiddie Kollege was ordered closed after two years of operation. The building was torn down several years later. Fortunately, after other protracted legal battles, the affected children qualified for continued monitoring. That's important because neurological effects of mercury poisoning can show up long after elevated blood levels subside.
The entire case has been frustrating and maddening, not only to the affected families, but to anyone who demands accountability from government and responsibility from commercial entities. The bulk of last week's ruling satisfies the second half of that premise.
On appeal was a 2014 judge's decision making the building's owners (the Jim Sullivan Inc. real estate firm) and the defunct thermometer maker (Accutherm Inc.) repay $6.13 million that DEP spent to decontaminate the property.
"It is only fitting that the original polluter -- as well as those who bought the property from them and leased it to others without doing their homework -- are held accountable," Acting state Attorney General John J. Hoffman said after the 2014 trial judge's ruling.
Last week's appellate panel decision upheld that notion, even though it excluded James Sullivan Jr., as an individual, from personal liability.
Most importantly, the appeals court stressed that misreading or misinterpreting DEP contamination reports -- a claim that Jim Sullivan Inc. had made -- does not exempt a party from liability. While the DEP reports were not a model of clarity, it was hard to miss the call for further action before reopening the site.
"We reject the notion that an owner of contaminated property can avoid cleanup responsibility under the Spill Act based on a subjective misunderstanding of a report and the law," the judges ruled.
Last week's decision could be appealed to the state Supreme Court. We hope, though, that the trail ends here, and that New Jersey's taxpayers and Spill Compensation Fund contributors can recoup their money. Although the horrors of Kiddie Kollege brought several legislative and regulatory reforms, it's time to cap this shameful episode.
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