CCP 03-28-1994 - Laserfiche WebLink

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. Oak Grove Trust Members March 22, 1994 Page 2 Landfill Site Trust's Concurrence in United States' Motion To Enter Consent Decree which is attached as Exhibit C. The purpose of the Trusts' concurrence is both to emphasize to the Court that in addition to the Untied States, all settlors desire that the Consent Decree be entered, and in particular, to emphasize the standard of review for the Consent Decree and the comment of Christopher Dietzen. We have been in contact with Judge Doly's clerk, and are hopeful that the Consent Decree will be entered this week. Once the Consent Decree is entered, the Trust has 30 days in which to pay EP A $1,785.100 plus interest from the date of lodging. In addition, within 30 days of entry of the Decree. the Trust must pay the United States Fish and Wildlife Service $148.600 in settlement of the natural resource damage claim. Within 90 days of entry of the Consent Decree. the settling federal agencies must pay the Trust a total of $170.000. Within 30 days of entry of the Consent Decree. the municipalities are to pay the Trust a total of $6.204.58 as their contribution to the natural resource damage settlement. As soon as practicable after the Consent Decree is entered, Litigation Counsel will transfer to the Trust 2/3 of the funds recovered through Litigation Counsel's letter writing campaign. This will amount to approximately $1.6 million. Also, as soon as practicable~a1ter _; entry of the Consent Decree, pursuant to Section 4.08 of the Trust Agreement Litigation . Counsel will forward to all Trust members the contribution litigation plan. Pursuant to Section 4.08, Trust members will then have 30 days to direct that they be "removed" as a - party to the litigation. however, such parties shall not be entitled to share in any amounts recovered (only class A settlors can lose this right, as all other Trust members have assigned the cost recovery/contribution rights to the Trust in return for the class A settlors having the cost overrun risk) and shall bear their own defense costs, if any, in connection with the suit Since the suit will be brought in the name of the Trust, and not the members, any direction to be removed from the suit has no practical effect other than that parties who have removed themselves from the suit can say that they are not a participating party. ~ III. EPA COST RECOVERY SUIT. EPA's negotiations with the parties it has decided to pursue for its unreimbursed response costs are proceeding at a snail's pace. While most of these parties have indicated a desire to settle, they have been insisting upon a resolution which includes the Trust so that the parties can settle all liabilities for the Site. As a result, Common Counsel and Litigation Counsel met with EPA and DOJ on December 3D, 1993, to discuss settlement amounts and procedural mechanisms to implement a 3-way settlement Pursuant to EPA and DOl policy, the United States will not allow any additional parties to participate in the Consent Decree currently before Judge Doly. The United States has taken the position that any settlement with these parties will take the Conn of a separate response cost Consent Decree, which will . 350/22040059 3/22194