In a fight that will affect the future development of a 20-acre chromium-contaminated site along Garfield Avenue, city officials said they intended to close down cleanup operations there on Monday, Feb. 9 to put pressure on PPG Industries to do more than just remove the contamination. But a last minute appeal to U.S. Superior Court put off the potential closure until May, giving the court time to review the city’s allegations.
The city claims PPG is balking at meeting its obligation to prepare the site for redevelopment. While the company hasn’t denied that, they’ve been trying to get the federal government to pay for some of the remediation, and also want to be the redeveloper of the site.
Jersey City has a number of former industrial areas in the process of being remediated to remove chromium, which can cause cancer.
The site in question is part of Canal Crossing, a massive 111-acre redevelopment area between the Bergen Lafayette region and Liberty State Park, which ultimately may someday contain over 1,000 units of housing.
The root of the problem
PPG Industries is working under a federal consent order, overseen by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), to clean up several sites, including two large sites along Garfield Avenue.
In a press conference held in front of the gates to one of those properties on Tuesday Feb. 3, Mayor Steven Fulop, along with members of the City Council, representatives of the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency (JCRA), Hampshire Real Estate Companies, and other community leaders, said the city would close off the site to further cleanup until PPG Industries agrees to prepare the site properly for future redevelopment. City officials claim PPG refuses to do the basic infrastructure preparation it agreed to under the consent order.
The company called the city’s position “irresponsible” and has asked the courts to order the city to back off.
“The next developer will have to mediate the site again.” – JCRA Executive Director David Donnelly
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Said Mayor Fulop, “This is a neighborhood that has worked so hard to get where it is today and is about to turn the corner, yet PPG is trying to destroy all that hard work. Here is a $31 billion company leaving the residents of Bergen-Lafayette and Jersey City with a useless, undevelopable gravel pit in the heart of the city. Not only do PPG’s actions show they don’t care about the residents of Jersey City, but they are downright shameful.”
Fulop said removing the company from the property gives the city leverage in forcing PPG to comply with the city’s demands.
“If they leave with 98 percent of the property cleaned up, then PPG can make their case that they lived up to the consent agreement and they will not come back to do the rest,” he said.
By stopping the company now, the city forces the company to come back since the PPG is obligated to clean up the property.
Fulop said the city had notified the company that they had until Feb. 9 to remove their equipment from the site.
A key piece in redevelopment
The 20-acre site is currently owned by the city, and is considered pivotal to the redevelopment of the Bergen-Lafayette community.
PPG operated facilities on the site from 1954 to 1963. Although it sold the property in the 1970s, PPG signed a consent order in 1990 accepting responsibility for cleaning up the contamination on this and other sites in Jersey City. That agreement was expanded in 2009 to obligate PPG Industries to prepare the Garfield Avenue site for future redevelopment. Fulop said part of this agreement was that the cleanup be done in line with Jersey City’s Canal Crossing Redevelopment Plan.
Two years ago, PPG Industries asked to be put in charge of redeveloping the property once it was cleaned up. The company filed an application with the JCRA to be named the redeveloper of the site as part of the Canal Crossing Redevelopment Area, a request largely ignored by the city.
The company proposed to develop the property as sections were cleaned up, which the company said would allow for quicker redevelopment of the area. But the city is essentially demanding PPG clean up the site in a way that would make it easier for a developer to be designated by the JCRA to build residential and other facilities on the property.
Living up to the deal
The city said PPG is not preparing the site for future redevelopment as required by the expansion of the 1990 consent order, signed in 2009 by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), PPG and Jersey City.
Cleanup at the site began in 2010 and was to be in accordance with the City’s Canal Crossing Redevelopment Plan, which was adopted nearly six months prior to the signing of the consent order and will create a new neighborhood connecting previously underserved and underdeveloped neighborhoods.
The city maintains the redevelopment plan and the consent order require PPG to use environmental remedial measures that permit redevelopment, including: conduct site grading to allow for parcels or subdivisions; installation of sewer connections, drainage, and storm water runoff systems; replace affected public streets and outlying streets; and replace affected sidewalks.
The mayor’s office and JCRA did not respond to requests by The Reporter for a copy of the consent order by press time.
The city and the JCRA are concerned that if PPG continues to remediate according to what they describe as its current plan, their work will permanently diminish the value of all property in the area.
“The next developer will have to remediate the site again,” according to JCRA Executive Director David Donnelly.
“The residents of Bergen-Lafayette have had to live with this contamination for decades and now PPG is again turning their backs on our community,” said Ward F Councilwoman Diane Coleman. “We were promised a cleanup that would allow us to rebuild this neighborhood and we are going to fight until PPG honors the requirement.”
Chromium problem recognized in the late 1980s
Residents in the area complained in the late 1980s of green water flowing off the property onto Garfield Avenue. This water turned out to be contaminated as a result of chrome production that had taken place on that site since before World War I.
The consent agreement was reached after years of negotiating the cost of the cleanup. The settlement got a commitment from PPG to clean up this and an adjacent property – which is currently being developed as Berry Lane Park – to a higher standard that would allow for residential development.
In 2012, PPG tried to get the federal government under federal Superfund legislation to pick up some of the costs of the cleanup since a number operations pre-dating when PPG took ownership were done under wartime mandates during World War I and World War II. Many of the toxic materials, PPG claimed, were stored on behalf of the government.
According to court papers from that request, chromium chemical producers were instructed by the government to dramatically increase their production in order to meet military demands for materials such as gas masks, body armor and shells, according to the suit. PPG claims the government never removed chromium wastes after military action ceased, leaving behind stockpiles 50 feet high.
The company’s demand for government documents to support their claim the government share in the remediation costs was rejected by the courts, but the company’s litigation on this effort continues.
A long history
Plants in Jersey City and Kearny began processing chromite ore as early as 1905. Natural Products Refining Company opened a chromite ore processing plant on the banks of the Morris Canal in 1920, which today is near the intersection of the Hudson Bergen Light Rail tracks and Garfield Avenue. This site was purchased by PPG in 1954. PPG operated the plant until 1963 when it moved operations to Texas.
In 2001, Jersey City took over the property when the PPG’s buyer failed to meet its tax obligations, by which time most of the warehouses on the property had been abandoned. A year later, PPG reached a voluntary agreement with the city to demolish the buildings at the Garfield Avenue site, making it easier for the company to determine the nature and extent of the chromite ore processing residue contamination.
Lafayette Village, built on two former chromite ore processing residue sites cleaned up by PPG, won a Phoenix Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for excellence in redevelopment of former industrial locations. PPG also was responsible for the cleanup of contamination in Berry Lane Park, which local officials are happy with.
Local businesses also have problems
Complicating matters is the fact that there are other businesses in the area that are affected negatively by the contamination.
Steve Parness, Justin Murphy and other property owners claim they have been damaged, without compensation. Part of a group called the Morris Canal Associates LLC, they also own property with the 111-acre tract known as the Canal Crossing Redevelopment Area. “The association of over twenty property owners within the redevelopment area was formed 14 years ago to assist the city in the planning phase and to participate in the redevelopment of the area,” said their attorney, John Frohling.
Parness, an owner on Pacific Avenue said he was poised to redevelop his own property, but has had to delay the project because on contamination concerns.
Murphy a third generation owner of Halsted Bags on Halladay Street which has operated on its present site since 1927, said he was unable to get information about levels of contamination after tests were done by PPG on his property. This lack of knowledge keeps this business from being sold or upgraded, he said.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.