Polluted sites in Central Jersey focus of state lawsuits looking to force cleanup

TRENTON – The state filed lawsuits to force the environmental cleanups of three contaminated properties in Middlesex Borough, Linden and Rahway.

The environmental justice lawsuits were filed in communities which are considered overburdened under New Jersey’s Environmental Justice Law because they have significant low-income, minority, and/or limited English proficiency populations.

The suits target the S. Burger Wire and Tubing site on Lincoln Boulevard in Middlesex Borough; a former coal ash disposal site earmarked for redevelopment on Tremley Point Road in Linden and a former service station on Lawrence Street in Rahway.

“Everyone, no matter where they are from or how they look, is entitled under our laws to live in an environment free from pollution,” Acting Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a press release. “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.”

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Lawsuits were also filed in connection with sites in Newark, Camden, Ewing and Elmwood Park. An additional lawsuit centers on a blueberry farm and processing operation in Hammonton where the owner allegedly has not complied with state Department of Environmental Protection orders to stop using four unsafe drinking water wells and two unpermitted septic systems.

In Middlesex Borough, the four-count lawsuit centers on soil and groundwater contaminated with PCE, TCE and cis-1,2-dichloroethene. Defendants in the lawsuit are two corporate entities – 277 Lincoln Holdings, LLC and 277 Lincoln Boulevard, LLC.

From approximately 1956 through 2003, according to the lawsuit, S. Burger Wire and Tubing manufactured fine round metal wire and tubing on the site. After the company stopped operations in 2003, soil and groundwater contamination were detected on the site in 2003 and 2004.

In 2005, 277 Lincoln Holdings entered into a Remediation Agreement with the state DEP and purchased the property

Thirteen years later in 2018, an evaluation of neighboring properties was performed and found traces of PCE and TCE in soil gas vapor samples taken at a nearby home.

The lawsuit alleges that after 277 Lincoln Holdings agreed to clean up the property, it was never done.

A successor owner of the property – 277 Lincoln Boulevard, LLC – also entered into an agreement with DEP in 2019 to remediate the site, but failed to honor its commitment, the lawsuit charges.

The complaint alleges violations of the state’s Spill Compensation and Control Act and the Industrial Site Recovery Act, and seeks penalties against both 277 Lincoln Holdings and 277 Lincoln Boulevard for failing to meet their clean-up obligations.

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In Linden, the state is seeking to collect $597,000 in civil penalties owed to the DEP for illegal dumping at a former coal ash disposal site earmarked for redevelopment on Tremley Point Road. Defendants in the lawsuit are D.T. Allen Contracting Co., Dredge Management Associates, and the companies’ owners/managing members, Greg Allen and Dan Allen.

According to the lawsuit, the defendants violated the Solid Waste Management Act by dumping large amounts of contaminated fill at the 4050 Tremley Point Road site between 2015 and 2018.

The fill was supposed to be “clean” fill for use in capping and containing mounds of coal ash once disposed on the property. Instead, the defendants allegedly imported massive amounts of contaminated fill in violation of the law and DEP directives.

The lawsuit alleges the tainted fill contained elevated levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), along with lead and arsenic.

In 2016, the DEP issued two Notices of Violation against the defendants who two years later signed an Administrative Consent Order to resolve the matter

However, the lawsuit alleges, they sold the property and walked away without meeting their remediation obligation under the consent order.

In 2021, the DEP issued a formal Demand for Stipulated Penalties to collect the $597,000 owed by the defendants.

But they never responded and have not paid the agreed-upon penalties, according to the lawsuit.

In Rahway, the lawsuit names former service station owners and operators B & S Oil Corporation, Guraya Oil Corporation, and one individual, Sukwinder Kaur.

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The suit alleges there were four documented discharges of gasoline and diesel fuel into the soil while the service station was open. Exposure to gasoline and diesel fuel can cause dizziness, nausea, harm to internal organs and damage to cognitive functions.

In 2015, the owners and operators entered into an agreement with the DEP accepting responsibility for remediating the contamination.

But to date, the lawsuit alleges, they have failed to do so.

In the lawsuit, the DEP seeks an order compelling the defendants to remediate the site and asks the court to impose civil penalties.

“In New Jersey, we are confronting the historic injustices that have burdened low-income and minority communities with a disproportionate amount of pollution,” Commissioner of Environmental Protection Sean LaTourette said in the press release. “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.”

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ contaminated sites cleanup forced by DEP through lawsuit