The EPA ordered the corporate successor of USRC to perform the cleanup work, but it declined, except for agreeing to erect a new security fence (even this they did not see through; the EPA was forced to complete it). The courts were not forgiving; in 1991, the New Jersey Supreme Court found USRC “forever”42 liable for the contamination and declared the firm had had “constructive knowledge”43 about the dangers at the time it operated there. Residents sued the firm; after seven years, the cases were eventually settled out of court, costing the company some $14.2 million (almost $24 million) in
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