JERSEY CITY – A demolition crew was to begin the process of taking down and removing on Wednesday an old ink factory on Jersey City’s West Side that has for years been an eyesore and nuisance for local residents.
For nearly 40 years, residents living near the Dye Specialties Inc. plant at 407 Ege Avenue had to contend with strange odors, colored dust, and other factory issues that they said affected their quality of life.
Even after the plant closed in 2003, purple and lavender dust still emanated periodically from the factory and would settle on the properties and cars of nearby residents. According to the factory’s former owner, Robert Lindley, the purple dust was not ink or dye, but rather an anti-fungal ingredient added to the factory’s products. Residents were told this ingredient posed no health risk.
Still, three months after the plant closed in June 2003, the Jersey City Fire Department found more than 200 sealed barrels of potentially hazardous chemicals. News accounts at the time noted that some barrels contained phosphorous oxychloride and trace levels of liquid phosgene, an ingredient used in mustard gas.
The barrels were removed and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection mandated a clean-up of the site. But the plant – and the periodic purple dust – have remained.
The city took over the factory, near the Hudson Mall, after property taxes went unpaid for years. A new owner, Picon Partners Redevelopment, recently acquired the property from the city and is having the old Dye Specialties plant demolished.
A spokesman for Picon said the company has yet to determine what it will do with the property once the factory has been removed.
A ceremony marking the beginning of the demolition process was to be held at the factory site Wednesday at 2 p.m. – E. Assata Wright