LibAnswers: Reference - Gloucester

This is the only reference found on the Internet mentioning Helen Kramer as the owner/operator and the Kramer family: 

"The settling parties are also paying a reasonable proportion of the overall liability when one considers the rather substantial fair share which would otherwise be payable by the owner/operator, Helen Kramer and her related entities, if she were not insolvent. The Kramer family were the active owners and operators of the Superfund site which has made their name somewhat infamous. Although many tons of hazardous waste at this site cannot be linked to any other party, and the origin of many other tons is in dispute, it can all be linked to the Kramers, yet they are unable to contribute to the settlement and have been voluntarily dismissed as a direct defendant. The 77% compromise thus also reflects the governmental recognition that it would be unfair to place this entire owner/operator share upon this subset of other PRPs whose "ideal" share of liability — "based on perfect knowledge of harm caused by [these] parties] only, expressed as a proportion of the total costs of remediation at the site," Kramer, 953 F. Supp. at 595 — is undoubtedly less than the compromise figure reached for this group. These parties are paying a disproportionate share of their liability measured in "ideal" terms, leavened, however, by the risk that their ultimate share of liability to the United States as direct defendants could be 100% by operation of joint and several liability under § 107(a) of CERCLA, as previously discussed. The monetary incentive to settle litigation occurs at that point where the risks of litigation move the government and the settling parties away from their respective "ideal" positions of 100% recovery for the government versus only the proportionate "ideal" share for a PRP. That balance has been reasonably struck in these consent decrees.

The court further finds that the risks of litigation have been reasonably appreciated by the settling parties. The State of New Jersey aptly points out:

The settlement is also reasonable in light of the complexity of the various liability cases to be made against various Defendants. The matters in dispute arise out of the operation of a landfill as far back as 30 years ago. Memories are inexact. Key witnesses have died. The documentary record is voluminous, complex, and in certain respects, not complete.

Found at: 

https://www.elr.info/sites/default/files/litigation/29.20294.htm