According to the U.S. Attorney and the Environmental Protection Agency, Jacob Goldberg & Son Inc.; Kearny Scrap Metal Co.; Leonard Sherman and his company, L&B Metals Inc.; Levin & Sons Inc.; Vincent A. Pace Scrap Metals Inc.; PSC Metals Inc.; and PSC Metals-New York LLC, sold scrap mercury to the Port Refinery between the 1970s and 1991. The site where the refinery was once located is now a Superfund site.

The government claims these companies are now liable for mercury contamination on the site and in surrounding residential neighborhoods under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. According to an agreement filed in 1996, a settlement of $2.4 million also allowed the government to seek additional cleanup costs at the old refinery site. Since 2004, the government has spent $7 million on further contamination, the EPA said.

The complaint will be heard in Manhattan Federal Court.

Contact Waste & Recycling News reporter Amanda Smith-Teutsch at 330-865-6166 or asmith-teutsch@crain.com