More than a hundred residents from the Marion Gardens neighborhood crowded City Hall Tuesday night to voice their opposition to the creation of a garbage transfer facility off Truck Route 1-9. Officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection sought public input on an application from Recycling Specialists, Inc. to obtain a solid waste facility permit and to expand their facility to a transfer and materials recovery station.
The public displeasure with the proposed facility ranged from health concerns to the perceived slighting of due process on the county level.
“There have always been a lot of problems with smells and traffic near the facility,” said Mary Marino, a Wallace Street resident who has lived in the area all her life. “There are two schools nearby on Broadway. The traffic would be awful.”
Rose Puma, a resident of the Marion Gardens complex located near the RSI facility, echoed Marino’s concerns about traffic caused by the expansion of the facility and the resultant increase in exhaust fumes.
“They [RSI management] should live in Marion Gardens for a month and see how they like it,” Puma said.
Located at 375 Route 1&9 South, RSI operates a 350 tons per-day “Class A” recycling center that includes approximately 100 tons per day of glass, aluminum, metal and plastic containers and 250 tons of paper, according to Thomas Sherman, director of the DEP’s division of Solid and Hazardous Waste.
“The solid waste facility permit would allow RSI to accept up to an average of 600 tons per day of solid waste,” said Sherman. “This would include municipal waste, bulk waste, and construction and demolition waste.”
Sherman added the proposed transfer facility would operate as the present recycling facility does, 24 hours a day, Monday through Saturday.
“In no event would the facility accept greater than 700 tons per day, with a weekly maximum of 3,600 tons,” noted Sherman, adding that the only access to the facility is from Route 1 & 9 South.
RSI president John Chiaia said his company had been operating a recycling operation at the Route1&9 location for 15 years with little harm to the surrounding community. Chiaia stated that Hudson County municipalities spend approximately $5 million hauling solid waste to dumping locations in Essex, Bergen and Union counties. Having a transfer station in Hudson County would, Chiaia argued, save the city money and generate jobs for the community.
However, residents and area political leaders concentrated on health concerns and procedural violations concerning RSI’s permits to operate.
Paul Donnelly, the husband of Councilperson Mary Donnelly who represents the ward where RSI is located, spoke against the approval of the transfer facility. Mary Donnelly was unable to attend the hearing, having recently had an operation on her leg.
“If that facility is put in that area,” said Paul Donnelly, after asking for the home addresses of Chiaia and the DEP representatives present. “I will go to your houses in the middle of July and dump garbage on your front lawns.”
Councilman Peter Brennan asked Chiaia about a Feb. 14, 2003 letter from the New Jersey Department of Transportation to RSI, notifying the company of “illegal encroachments’ at their property. The letter states: “The encroachment consists of the storage of trailers and dumpsters under the [Pulaski] Skyway. By this letter you are being directed to immediately refrain from said storage.”
When asked by Brennan if he was aware of the letter, Chiaia said he was not. When interviewed on Thursday, Chiaia said his company had received the letter, but he did not see it himself. Chiaia would not say if trailers and dumpsters were on RSI property, but stated nothing illegal was being done there and RSI was working with the Department of Transportation to resolve the situation.
Hudson County Freeholder Bill O’Dea informed the DEP representatives that the Board of Freeholders was not notified when, in 2001, the Hudson County Improvement Authority renewed RSI’s permit to operate. Claiming the Freeholder Board had been ignored, O’Dea requested the hearing be adjourned and the 2001 updating of RSI’s permit be reexamined by the freeholders. The freeholder board had already voted to approve such a facility in 1997, but have since changed their makeup.
Sherman continued the meeting.
According to HCIA Executive Director Norman Guerra, the recertification of RSI’s permit was held because of litigation with the DEP on an unrelated manner. Guerra said once the litigation was resolved, the DEP ruled that RSI’s permit could be recertified by an administrative act of the HCIA.
“RSI would not have to go back to the freeholders,” said Guerra.
Louis Guerriero, a Jersey City resident who owns two homes in the area of RSI, noted the already high volume of truck traffic in the area.
“Between 7 and 10 a.m., there are trucks backed up trying to get on and off Route 1&9,” said Guerriero. “Having the transfer station there will make matters worse.”
When asked by Councilman Jerrimiah Healy about how many trucks were expected to come and go daily if RSI were allowed to be a transfer facility, Chiaia was unable to answer with certainty. However, Chiaia stated the number of trucks going through the facility would not exceed the municipal limit of 34 per day.
Sherman noted the public comment period on the transfer station approval would be 15 days from the meeting last Tuesday and end on March 19.
“The public is invited to submit written comments to the department,” said Sherman. Chiaia stated that a decision regarding the approval of transfer facility would take approximately six months. All written comments on the RSI transfer station application approval should be sent to: Thomas Sherman, Assistant Director, NJDEP Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste, 401 E. State St., P.O. Box 414, Trenton, N.J. 08625-0414. The deadline is March 19.