The landlord of the Closed Loop Recycling (CLRR) certainly has a mess to clean up.
We will be submitting a claim in the near future ourselves. Unfortunately, our attorneys don't want us to make the case in the papers, yet.
But the headlines already generated calls from our clients. So here are a few points of fact that need to be considered in any story.
First, for more information about the site, see Jason Koebler's excellent article in Motherboard. But remember, that article was about a site we stopped shipping to more than 4 years before the story was written!
Garrison Southfield Park is a giant real estate company with properties across the USA. Why are they going after Mom and Pop recycling companies years after they failed to maintain the site? And why don't they go after OEMs if they want to "share the pain"?
Garrison should take the money they accepted as rent and empty the buildings. Instead, they are spending the rent money to sue recyclers who they should have been consulting with before they leased twice as much space to CLRR.
I felt sorry for Garrison before they named my company in their suit. Now, I think they are going to regret trying to go backward 6 years. You have not heard the last of this from us.
Anyone who pays Garrison now will be NOT guaranteed not to pay for their stuff a third time... We want Garrison to clean out the site yesterday, and show us what it cost. As a former regulator, let me tell you, I don't think this lawsuit is the way to clean up a site.
We will be submitting a claim in the near future ourselves. Unfortunately, our attorneys don't want us to make the case in the papers, yet.
But the headlines already generated calls from our clients. So here are a few points of fact that need to be considered in any story.
First, for more information about the site, see Jason Koebler's excellent article in Motherboard. But remember, that article was about a site we stopped shipping to more than 4 years before the story was written!
- CLRR was operating in 1675 Watkins Road when Garrison bought the property in 2013... presumably after a real estate appraisal.
- We stopped shipping to CLRR before they speculatively accumulated (December 2013).
- Garrison leased the second building, 1655 Watkins road, months after we stopped shipping to CLRR (April 2014). That decision, to lease twice as much space to CLRR (charging rent CLRR should have been spending to process stuff from 2014) should be looked at by Ohio EPA, should an actual CERCLA case be tried.
- There is no evidence of "release" of anything to the environment, and no CERCLA case filed by EPA or Ohio EPA.
Garrison Southfield Park is a giant real estate company with properties across the USA. Why are they going after Mom and Pop recycling companies years after they failed to maintain the site? And why don't they go after OEMs if they want to "share the pain"?
Garrison should take the money they accepted as rent and empty the buildings. Instead, they are spending the rent money to sue recyclers who they should have been consulting with before they leased twice as much space to CLRR.
I felt sorry for Garrison before they named my company in their suit. Now, I think they are going to regret trying to go backward 6 years. You have not heard the last of this from us.
Anyone who pays Garrison now will be NOT guaranteed not to pay for their stuff a third time... We want Garrison to clean out the site yesterday, and show us what it cost. As a former regulator, let me tell you, I don't think this lawsuit is the way to clean up a site.
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