TRENTON, NJ — Acting Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette announced Aug. 24 the filing of seven new environmental enforcement actions across the state.
Six of the environmental justice lawsuits center on a broad array of chemical pollutants that have tainted separate, unrelated sites in Newark, Linden, Ewing, Rahway, Elmwood Park Borough and Middlesex Borough. Those six communities are considered overburdened under New Jersey’s Environmental Justice Law because they have significant low-income, minority and/or limited English proficiency populations.
The seventh lawsuit centers on a blueberry farm and blueberry processing operation in Hammonton that employs migrant farm workers who live on site. The farm owner allegedly has not complied with NJDEP orders to stop using four substandard, unsafe drinking water wells on the property, and also is alleged to be using two unpermitted septic systems. Together with the lawsuit, the state also filed an application for an order requiring the farm owner to take immediate action — either shut down or stop using the wells for potable purposes, such as for drinking water or culinary purposes.
“Everyone, no matter where they are from or how they look, is entitled under our laws to live in an environment free from pollution,” Platkin said. “Pollution harms us all, but not equally. In New Jersey and across the nation, there is a shameful legacy of environmental injustice, but the Murphy administration is committed to changing that here in New Jersey. Today’s enforcement actions are the latest example of that continuing commitment.”
“In New Jersey, we are confronting the historic injustices that have burdened low-income and minority communities with a disproportionate amount of pollution,” LaTourette said. “Our commitment to furthering the promise of environmental justice sometimes demands that we take legal action to correct the legacy of pollution that underserved communities have endured. Lawsuits like those we are announcing today are an important message to polluters: Treat every New Jersey community as though it were your own by leaving your neighbors and their environment better than you found them.”
Filed in New Jersey Superior Court, today’s six environmental justice lawsuits address a variety of environmental threats, including the contamination of soil and groundwater, as well as the potential in some cases for harmful chemical vapors. Likewise, the pollutants at issue and violations of law vary from complaint to complaint.
One of the lawsuits filed concerns Avenue P in Newark. The state’s complaint centers on a contaminated industrial property spanning the 300 and 400 blocks of Avenue P in Newark near the Essex County Correctional Facility. 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 Corp. and two paint company clients, Benjamin Moore & Co. and Sherwin Williams Co.
The state’s lawsuit names as defendants current owner Ootzie Properties-NWK LLC and its corporate principal Anthony Cerone, as well as D&J Trucking Waste & Co., Benjamin Moore & Co., Sherwin Williams Co., Sun Chemical Corp., and Ecobat Resources New York, formerly Revere Smelting & Refining Corp. 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 NJDEP for its costs to date, including the cost of site cleanup and investigation.
Photos Courtesy of NJDEP
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