Dawn Cica, partner with Fox Rothschild LLP, was part of the team
that represented the State of Nevada in the Tronox, LLC bankruptcy.
A settlement agreement which was negotiated in 2010 among the
various state and federal government agencies to allow Tronox to
confirm a reorganization plan in the Tronox bankruptcy gave the
state of Nevada 22 percent of any recovery in Tronox's lawsuit
against Kerr-McGee Corporation a subsidiary of Anadarko
Petroleum.
The lawsuit settled for $5.15 billion, the largest environmental
cleanup settlement in history and was recently approved by the
bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York . Cica, who
served as restructuring counsel to Nevada's Department of
Environmental Protection, helped to secure 22 percent of the $5.15
billion payout for the state, which was the largest sum given to
any one state. The rest of the funds will be distributed to the 41
other affected state governments and EPA trusts for future and past
cleanup costs.
The litigation stemmed from pollution left behind by the Kerr-McGee
Corporation, which was acquired by Anadarko in 2006. The legacy
environmental pollution dates back to at least 1928. The polluted
Kerr-McGee sites include a former manufacturing facility in
Henderson, Nevada, where hexavalent chromium and perchlorate were
produced. Pollution from that site threatens Lake Mead, which flows
into the Colorado River and is a major source of drinking water for
Southern California.
Parent company Kerr-McGee created the Tronox subsidiary in 2006 as
part of a plan to separate its successful oil and gas counterparts
from the legacy environmental liabilities. The legacy environmental
liabilities were transferred to Tronox, which was left insolvent.
Tronox couldn't pay the costs of the environmental cleanup and
went into bankruptcy in 2009.
This $1.1 billion is in addition to approximately $81 million
already distributed to the site trust on behalf of the State of
Nevada as part of the 2011 bankruptcy settlement. "This result
was crucial for the state and ensures that Nevada will be able to
take the necessary steps to fully clean the water system and help
the residents who were harmed by Tronox and Kerr-McGee," said
Cica. "Without this decision, the funds would not have been
available to clean up the site," she noted.
Cica has more than 25 years of experience working on transactional
aspects of bankruptcy and creditor's rights, including
workouts, restructurings, settlements and asset sales. She is
well-versed in the complex details surrounding all transactional
matters related to restructuring and bankruptcy, such as
negotiating and documenting strategic resolutions,
debtor-in-possession financings and asset sales.
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