IRVINGTON / NEWARK, NJ — Acting Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck and Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette announced Oct. 8 the filing of seven new environmental enforcement actions across the state, including six to hold polluters accountable for contamination in environmental justice communities.
Five of these six environmental justice lawsuits focus on harmful contamination posing a threat to residents and natural resources in Camden, Irvington, Jersey City, Newark and Somerville. Each of these communities is considered “overburdened” under New Jersey’s Environmental Justice Law because it has a significant low-income, minority, and/or limited English proficiency population.
The sixth environmental justice lawsuit centers on suspect underground fuel storage tanks located at three gas station properties owned by the same defendant. Two of those service stations are located in Camden County towns categorized as overburdened — Runnemede and Voorhees. A third service station is located in Pitman in Gloucester County, which is not considered overburdened.
The seventh lawsuit centers on an abandoned gasoline filling station in Mays Landing, where an unregistered and unmonitored system of underground fuel storage tanks containing a significant amount of gasoline and diesel fuel poses a risk of spillage and contamination.
“Pollution affects all of us, but it doesn’t affect us equally,” Bruck said. “Lower-income neighborhoods have been disproportionately exposed to environmental harms. And far too often, the communities most affected by these harms have been communities of color. That legacy of environmental injustice is why, here in New Jersey, the Murphy administration is prioritizing environmental cleanups in these overburdened neighborhoods.”
“For far too long, our fellow residents in low-income and minority communities have carried a disproportionate burden of the pollution that we all together create,” LaTourette said. “With Gov. Murphy’s leadership, New Jersey is turning the tide and implementing the strongest environmental justice law in the country. Still, we must reckon with the pollution of the past and, through actions like those we take today, hold accountable those who have harmed already overburdened communities. My DEP colleagues and I thank acting Attorney General Bruck for his partnership in treating the environmental threats to any New Jersey community as a threat to our entire New Jersey community.”
In Newark, the state has filed a complaint against Fast Oil Co. The state’s complaint alleges that Fast Oil Co. is exposing neighbors of 126 Passaic St. in Newark to environmental and public health dangers by failing to comply with DEP orders concerning a 300,000-gallon aboveground storage tank. The tank is mostly full of hazardous wastewater, which the company is now allegedly mixing with cooking oil and shipping to a biodiesel supplier without obtaining required DEP permits. According to the complaint, the tank contains silver, barium and 2-butanone, all of which are regulated hazardous substances. The substances are known to pose threats to human health, including breathing problems, lung and throat irritation, muscular weakness, and central nervous system issues. Fast Oil previously failed to provide DEP with required discharge prevention and cleanup plans, and subsequently entered into an administrative consent order with the DEP requiring that it remove all wastewater from the tank or submit the required plans within 120 days. Fast Oil then failed to comply with the administrative consent order, and the DEP subsequently discovered the company’s unpermitted wastewater/cooking oil operations.
The lawsuit seeks to compel defendants to empty the tank, repair the containment system surrounding the tank, immediately halt the illegal solid waste importing and processing operations, and pay civil penalties. Defendants in the case other than Fast Oil include Fast Oil President Aryeh Weinstein, and prior site owners W.A.S. Terminals and Eastern Biofuels LLC. The suit alleges violations of the Spill Act, Industrial Site Recovery Act and the New Jersey Solid Waste Management Act.
In Irvington, the state has filed a complaint against Gulf Oil–AAR Fuel. This complaint involves three abandoned 10,000-gallon underground unleaded gasoline storage tanks at the site of a former Gulf Oil–Delta gas station at 1359 Springfield Ave. in Irvington, owned by Raees and Khadija Sheikh and operated by AAR Fuel LLC. The DEP’s inspections of the gas station between 2008 and 2017 revealed numerous violations, the complaint alleges, including failure to maintain assurance of financial responsibility, protect tanks and piping from corrosion, or have an operational leak detection system. Despite signing an administration consent order with the DEP in 2017, ceasing operations and paying required penalties, AAR Fuel and Raees Sheikh have still not closed or removed the underground tank system as required. These abandoned and unmonitored storage tanks pose a risk to public health and the environment because of their potential to leak.
This complaint alleges that AAR Fuel and Raees Sheikh have also failed to complete the investigation and remediation of soil contamination, including benzene, xylenes and methyl tertiary-butyl ether, that was reported to the DEP in 1999. As the complaint notes, human exposure to gasoline can cause dizziness, nausea, damage to internal organs and damage to cognitive function. This complaint alleges violations of the Underground Storage of Hazardous Substances Act, the Brownfields Act, the Site Remediation Reform Act and a DEP final agency order. The complaint seeks to compel defendants to remove the out-of-service tanks, investigate and remediate all contamination at the site, pay civil penalties and reimburse the state’s costs.
Photos Courtesy of Attorney General’s Office
State files to hold alleged polluters in Irvington, Newark accountable added by Editor on
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