Occidental Petroleum

Occidental Petroleum has hired Trenton’s GTB Partners to handle issues related to the clean-up of Jersey’s polluted Passaic River, which the EPA declared a Superfund site in 1984.

The energy giant in July sweetened its $441M offer to clean up nine miles of the river to the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The offer called for a “staged process” in which OxyPete would seek to recoup some of its outlays from other polluters of the waterway.

The Passaic River became a dumping ground for chemical companies during the 1940s.

Diamond Alkali, maker of herbicides including Agent Orange used during the Vietnam War, dumped waste into the river during the 1950s and 1960s. OxyPete acquired Diamond Alkali.

GDP founding partners Rich Gannon and Michael Torpey handle OxyPete.

Gannon was a managing director at Winning Strategies and aide to the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.

Torpey worked as chief of staff to Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman.