Newark Plant Sickening Community With Putrid Odors, Lawsuit Says

NEWARK, NJ — New Jersey state officials have filed a lawsuit against a Newark company accused of spewing putrid odors into the air and infuriating the local community.

On Thursday, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Catherine McCabe announced that the state has filed suit against Darling Ingredients Inc. The plant, which is located at 825 Wilson Avenue in the Ironbound section of Newark, recycles animal byproducts and grease into materials such as feed and fuel ingredients.

The lawsuit developed after nearby residents filed a wave of complaints about the facility, including persistent “animal carcass odors,” state prosecutors said.

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According to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the odors coming from the Darling Ingredients plant “interfere with affected residents’ enjoyment of life and property.”

Darling has not been in compliance with its operating permits since 2017, which require the company to maintain emission control equipment to prevent offensive smells from being released, prosecutors allege.

According to state prosecutors:

“Over the past year and a half, DEP and Essex County Health Department officials on five separate occasions verified odor complaints by affected citizens. Complainants described a range of impacts on their daily life, including headaches, migraines and nausea. Complainants described not being able to go outside or to open their windows. Beyond those incidents, DEP received numerous other complaints on its hotline. But despite the assessment of penalties for these complaints, the lawsuit alleges, Darling has also not ceased emitting air pollution.”

Several of the complaints came from Cortland Street, which is more than a mile away from the facility, state officials said.

Prosecutors continued:

“Recent inspections conducted by DEP in September show Darling failed to comply with the air permits for this rendering plant throughout the latter part of 2018 and much of 2019. Proper operation of the plant’s emissions control, including ‘scrubbers’ – air pollution control devices used to neutralize or remove gases and/or particulates from industrial exhaust – is critical to effectively eliminate odors. But, as the complaint alleges, DEP found the scrubbers were not being properly operated and even found that leakage occurred. In total, DEP discovered 320 permit violations from September 1, 2018 to June 8, 2019, and found additional violations in inspections conducted since June.”

Thursday’s four-count complaint accuses the company of violating the Air Pollution Control Act (APCA) and seeks several remedies:

• An order prohibiting Darling from “emitting odors that unreasonably interfere with individuals’ enjoyment of life and property”
• An order requiring Darling to “immediately take all actions necessary to eliminate odors from its operations”
• An order requiring Darling to retain an outside environmental consultant to prepare a report on how to eliminate the odors, and to provide DEP with monitoring reports on Darling’s process in doing so

The lawsuit also seeks to require Darling to comply with the conditions of its permits, and to pay civil penalties under the Air Pollution Control Act for its past violations. The DEP is authorized to seek civil penalties of up to $10,000 for the first offense, up to $25,000 for the second offense, and up to $50,000 for the third and each subsequent offense for violations of the APCA.

“The repeated air and odor violations at Darling Ingredients has caused serious disruption to the lives of the residents in Newark and beyond,” Commissioner McCabe said. “This conduct cannot be tolerated, so today, the DEP is taking the necessary step of seeking court intervention to ensure immediate compliance with our environmental laws.”

• See related article: These Environmental Bullies Are Picking On NJ Minorities: Lawsuit

John Flora, a Congressional candidate in the state's 10th District, pointed out that residents of two waterfront communities, Society Hill and Droyers Point, were the driving forces that spurred the lawsuit.

"After years of dealing with rancid odors that smell like dead animal carcasses, residents of these two adjacent communities finally organized and filed hundreds of complaints to a NJDEP hotline," Flora said.

Newark’s Ironbound section is also home to other facilities that have been accused of polluting the local community, such as the Covanta trash incinerator, which combusts 2,800 tons per day of municipal garbage from New York City and all 22 municipalities in Essex County.

• See related article: Essex County Trash Incinerator Unfairly Burdens Poor, Critics Say

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