Novartis AG, a Superfund Site and a Local Mayor

Nearly a decade ago, a landfill that is located just a few miles from the sprawling Novartis US headquarters campus was declared a Superfund site. Known as Rolling Knolls, the former dumping ground covers about 200 acres and is bounded by the leafy New Jersey suburb of Chatham Township and a national wildlife refuge. But a simmering dispute recently broke out over plans for the site that put the drugmaker on the defensive. Here’s the background. Novartis is one of the so-called responsible parties. This means that, along with a few other entities, the drugmaker would be expected to pay to remediate the site, which is in a residential zone. The final costs are not yet known, however, since the US Environmental Protection Agency has not performed a baseline risk assessment, which gauges contamination and required remedial steps, according to an EPA spokesman.