Kodak offers $49M trust for environmental issues

June 3, 2013

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — As it inches closer to emergence from bankruptcy, Eastman Kodak is still wrestling with the financial repercussions of past environmental problems.

Federal and New York state officials have filed a dozen claims for past environmental damage and expenses, including demands for up to $10.1 million to address toxic silver contamination of sediments in the Genesee River.  At the same time, Kodak is negotiating with a state agency to create an environmental trust fund that would become responsible for ongoing cleanup and any as-yet-undiscovered issues related to historic contamination at Eastman Business Park.

Kodak would endow the trust fund with $49 million then wash its hands of future liability for the historic environmental problems at Eastman Business Park. If that money were to run out, someone else would have to pick up the tab for study or cleanup at the 1,200-acre business park.

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