Greenfield Environmental Trusts

In 2022, Greenfield was appointed trustee of two independent environmental response trusts created to accelerate recovery of Maine’s largest river. The appointment by the U.S. District Court in Maine came as part of the court’s approval of a multimillion-dollar settlement for cleanup of mercury contamination in the Penobscot River Estuary. The Court’s decision requires Mallinckrodt US LLC to pay at least $187 million and possibly an additional $80 million to remediate mercury contamination in the Penobscot River Estuary and provide meaningful and lasting benefit for surrounding communities and environment.

In 2011, Greenfield took title to four federal Superfund sites, six Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) facilities, and 258 former service stations, at the request of the U.S. government, 22 states, and Tronox/Kerr-McGee. As Trustee, we have earned the trust and respect of the federal and state regulatory agencies that are the beneficiaries of the Multistate Trust. Our community-based approach to cleanup and reuse creates economic value and beneficial public assets, and it helps mitigate environmental injustice at many sites.

In 2009, Greenfield took title to two federal Superfund sites, a state Superfund site, and an abandoned mine in Montana, at the request of then-bankrupt mining giant ASARCO, the United States, and the State of Montana. The sites include a 2,000-acre former lead smelter in East Helena, where we are remediating contamination and facilitating the redevelopment of the former ASARCO lands.

In 2011, Greenfield took title to a former titanium dioxide facility and an operating sulfuric acid plant, at the request of the United States and the State of Georgia. Under Greenfield, the acid plant annually produced 300,000 tons of high-grade sulfuric acid, generating up to $4 million in profits used to pay for site cleanup. In 2017, we sold 750 acres, which transferred cleanup and future use to a Savannah-based company. The sale proceeds will finance the cleanup by the new owner.

In 1989, Greenfield was appointed Trustee of the Custodial Trust, taking title to more than half of the 245-acre Industri-plex Federal Superfund Site in Woburn, Massachusetts, at the request of the U.S. government, Massachusetts, and 22 settling parties. The Industri-plex Site was then ranked fifth on EPA’s National Priorities List of the most polluted (Superfund) sites. Our accomplishments in Woburn—thousands of new jobs and taxes and $50 million in new infrastructure improvements—earned Greenfield its first national Phoenix Award—and widespread recognition for helping launch the national brownfields movement.

After a national search for technical help, the City of Plainview, Arkansas, selected Greenfield to lead the cleanup and reuse of the bankrupt Mountain Pine Pressure Treating Federal Superfund Site. We worked with federal and state agencies and community leaders to secure title to the abandoned Site for the City and procure grant funds to construct a general-purpose industrial facility. Greenfield won its second national Phoenix Award for its work in Plainview.

In 1993, in an unprecedented decision by a federal court judge—and subsequently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court—Greenfield was appointed trustee of the Production Plated Plastics federal hazardous waste site in Richland, Michigan. Reporting directly to the chief judge of the U.S District Court (Western District of Michigan), we were tasked with marshaling and liquidating the responsible party’s assets, including numerous brownfield sites, to fund cleanup of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) site.