The federal government has sued to recover $7 million in mercury cleanup costs from eight companies that used a New York refinery between 1970 and 1991.
The companies were part of an earlier $2.4 million settlement. But the government says more mercury was found after the settlement was reached.
The site of the contamination, in Rye Brook, is now a residential neighborhood. It was next to Port Refinery Inc., which extracted mercury from scrap metal. The Environmental Protection Agency has been cleaning up mercury in the area since 1991.
The lawsuit says the companies are liable under the Superfund law and under the terms of the earlier settlement.
A lawyer for one of the companies said he had not yet seen the lawsuit and could not comment.
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