Cocktail Of Chemicals Found At Polluted Site In Newark, AG Says

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — An allegedly “contaminated” industrial property in Newark near the county prison is the site of one of seven, new environmental enforcement actions launched across the state, authorities said.

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office and the state Department of Environmental Protection released details about each lawsuit on Wednesday. Several of the suits are located in communities that are considered “overburdened” under the state’s new environmental justice law.

In Newark, the state’s complaint centers on a contaminated industrial property spanning the 300-and-400 blocks of Avenue P near the Essex County Correctional Facility, authorities said. Here’s how officials described the allegations:

“According to the complaint, soil and groundwater at the site has been polluted with such hazardous substances as PCBs, benzene, toluene, xylenes, TCE, PCE, naphthalene, arsenic, lead, and mercury. Historically, the property was owned by various metal smelting and refining operators. Subsequently, it was acquired by a waste hauling business that used it as an illegal dump site for hazardous wastes it hauled on behalf of Sun Chemical Corporation and two paint company clients – Benjamin Moore & Company and Sherwin Williams Company.”

Defendants in the state’s lawsuit include current owner Ootzie Properties-NWK, LLC and its corporate principal Anthony Cerone, as well as D&J Trucking Waste & Co., Benjamin Moore & Company, Sherwin Williams Company, Sun Chemical Corporation, and Ecobat Resources New York (formerly Revere Smelting & Refining Corporation).

The complaint alleges violations of the state’s Spill Compensation and Control Act, Water Pollution Control Act and Solid Waste Management Act.

In addition to seeking civil penalties, the complaint seeks a court order requiring the defendants to remediate the Avenue P property and reimburse DEP for its costs to date, including the cost of site cleanup and investigation.

Other enforcement actions announced Wednesday include sites in Linden, Ewing, Rahway, Elmwood Park Borough and Middlesex Borough that have also been “tainted” by chemical pollutants, authorities said. A seventh lawsuit involves a blueberry farm in Hammonton that is allegedly violating state orders to stop using four “unsafe” drinking water wells.

Including the lawsuits filed Wednesday, the Attorney General’s Office and state DEP have filed a total of 52 environmental justice cases since 2018. To date, the lawsuits have yielded nearly $20 million in judgments, officials said.

“Moreover, many of the cases have resulted in court orders requiring responsible parties to protect public health and the environment by remediating the properties at issue,” officials said. “Such orders are important fiscally as well, because they ensure that polluters – not New Jersey taxpayers – bear the cost of cleaning up harmful contamination.”

In 2020, Murphy signed one of the strongest environmental justice laws in the nation, which makes it harder for the owners of major sources of air pollution to build a new facility, expand an old one, or renew an existing permit in areas that are considered “overburdened.” Read More: New DEP Rule Would Protect Already Polluted NJ Communities

To qualify, a neighborhood needs to have 35 percent low-income households, 40 percent minority households or 40 percent of households with limited English language proficiency. According to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, about 348 municipalities have overburdened communities within their borders, and the law impacts 4.6 million people in New Jersey. Read More: NJ Law Gives Urban Areas A Powerful Tool To Fight Polluters

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