FOR IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE (October 1, 2018 – Hagåtña)– Acting Speaker Therese Terlaje congratulates the Office of the Attorney General and AG Elizabeth Barrett Anderson on the win against the Department of the Navy’s motion to dismiss, in a lawsuit the Attorney General brought on behalf of the Government of Guam against the US Department of the Navy seeking to declare the Navy liable for environmental response costs incurred by the Government of Guam in closing Ordot Dump, and for future environmental related costs. In an Order dated September 30, 2018, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson denied the Navy’s motion to dismiss.

“This is a great victory for the people of Guam and allows us an excellent and most significant avenue to proceed in our longstanding quest for justice against environmental contamination,” Terlaje stated.

The complaint was brought under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, also known as CERCLA, a federal statute, which makes a “potential responsible party” liable for remedial action. In 1988 the USEPA determined that the Navy is a potential responsible party for the contamination found in Ordot Dump. The Navy owned and operated Ordot Dump before and after WWII.

For more information regarding the CERCLA case see: https://pacificnewscenter.com/guam-ags-office-one-step-closer-in-implicating-us-navy-over-ordot-dump/