Several Lehigh Valley businesses recently filed a civil action in United States District Court alleging the owners of the Stroh Brewery Company failed to pay their share of a Group Operating Agreement signed in August 1995.

According to a civil complaint obtained from the federal courthouse in Allentown, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., LSI Corporation, Mack Trucks, Inc., and PPL Electric Utilities Corporation and 5 other companies allege the company owes $645,000 for the clean up of the Novak Sanitary Landfill Superfund Site, South Whitehall Township.

The Stroh family which operated The Stroh Brewery Company in Fogelsville until 1999 was one of 16 companies who entered into an Administrative Order by Consent with the United States Environmental Protection Agency for preparation of a remedial investigation and feasibility study of the Novak site to examine possible means of remediating the contamination at the site.

According to the complaint, EPA in 1993 estimated the cost of clean up to be $16,105,149.

The complaint states, SBC Holdings, Inc., an Arizona corporation, with a corporate office in Detroit, Mich., served as a business wrap up entity through which the sale of assets, distribution of profits, and retention of liabilities of The Stroh Brewery Company was handled, is directly liable and Stroh is derivatively liable by way of piercing the corporate veil of its subsidiary.

According to the complaint, the employees of SBC are also the employees of Stroh and work in the same corporate office in Detroit, Mich.

The complaint states, since 1999, SBC has had no operating assets.

Since 2000, SBC has had no income, other than payments made to it by Stroh.

According to the complaint, in 2008, Stroh decided to no longer infuse SBC with cash sufficient to cover SBC's liabilities.

That decision resulted in SBC not being able to pay its obligations at the Novak Superfund Site.

According to the complaint, the financial records of SBC have not been independently audited since 1999 and SBC's financial statements are consolidated with those of Stroh.

SBC is the alter ego of Stroh and as such Stroh is liable for SBC's obligation at the Novak Superfund Site, the complaint states.

The Superfund Site which occupies approximately 65 acres of hillside north of Jordan Creek and south of Orefield was owned by Lou Novak and operated as a landfill from the mid-1950s to 1985.

After a suspension of its permit in 1985 to 1987, the Site reopened as a landfill from 1987 to May 1990.

While in operation, the Site was used for the disposal of industrial, commercial, municipal and residential waste, the complaint states.

According to the complaint, in 1978, The Stroh Brewery Company executed a hauling contract with Valley Disposal Company, also owned by Lou Novak to dispose of its hazardous waste generated from its brewery to the Superfund Site.

Hazardous substances have been detected in the Site soils and in the groundwater underneath the Site, the complaint states.

The complaint states, on Oct. 4, 1989, the EPA placed the Site on the National Priorities List, a national list of waste sites that pose the greatest threat to health, welfare and the environment.

Other companies suing Stroh in the civil complaint include Amana Company, L.P.; General Electric Company; Ingersoll Rand Company and Tarkett, Inc.