Carteret Republicans

Company proposes soil recycling to cap vacant tract in Carteret

Published: Sunday, March 18, 2012, 7:00 AM

By Tom Haydon/The Star-LedgerThe Star-Ledger Follow

Patti Sapone/The Star-LedgerExposed sludge (seen in the center) with tall grass in the background in a long-vacant Carteret site mired in a redevelopment dispute. The land is the former Cytec Inc. property in Carteret. Soil Safe Inc. of Maryland, wants to put a soil recycling plant there, but environmental groups say Soil Safe has a bad track record and will add to existing contamination.

CARTERET — Dense reeds and tall grass cover the fields on the 125-acre tract along the edge of the Rahway River in Carteret, with few signs of the cyanide sludge dumped there from the 1920s to the 1970s.

Bill Roberts, however, easily identifies reminders of the industrial work as he points to spongy patches of dirt, which, he says, sit on top of waste lagoons so contaminated nothing will grow there.

“It’s widespread. It’s everywhere,” Roberts said, explaining that cyanide, benzene and other chemicals contaminate the property. Roberts is an engineer for Soil Safe, a Maryland-based company proposing a soil-recycling operation on the site to cap the toxic waste.

It would be the first use of the land since the American Cyanamid Company — now known as Cytec — stopped its operation in the early 1970s.

Carteret officials see a possibility that more than 20 acres of the tract could eventually be used for industry.

Robert Spiegel of the Edison Wetlands doubts the project will be beneficial to the land. He and several other environmental groups, including the Rahway River Association and the Baykeeper of New York and New Jersey, say Soil Safe will be dumping additional contamination on the site. Activists say the site has already been cleaned up.

“This is going to be a landfill, not a recycling facility,” Spiegel told Middlesex County officials who were considering whether to include Soil Safe’s proposal in the county plan for managing solid waste.

He referred to a letter from the state Department of Environmental Protection saying there was “no further action” needed to clean up the site.

Patti Sapone/The Star-LedgerWilliam Roberts, program director Mid-Atlantic Region with Soil Safe gives a tour of the former Cytec Inc. property in Carteret, 125 acres of over-grown, supposedly contaminated land along the Rahway River in Carteret. Soil Safe Inc. of Maryland, wants to put a soil recycling plant here.

DEP spokesman Lawrence Ragonese confirmed the site was capped and there is a regular certification that clean-up standards are being maintained.

But Roberts and other Soil Safe officials disagree with the state, saying there are 2 million tons of pollutants dumped in six lagoons on the tract, and 25 million gallons of water washes through the ponds and into groundwater annually.

Soil Safe proposes bringing in 1 million to 1.5 million tons of dirt contaminated with gasoline or oil or other petroleum products. The dirt will be treated and spread as a cap.

Under the plan, 40 acres of wetlands along the river will be maintained, and the rest will be capped and remediated, with 25 acres made ready for commercial use. The company has been recycling soil for more than 20 years, including 16 years at two sites in southern New Jersey.

Opponents say the company has a poor record with the DEP, but Ragonese said Soil Safe had administrative violations that were not major for a now-closed operation in Salem. The company paid $51,750 in penalties, Ragonese said.

Soil Safe, which began studying the Carteret site in 2010, needs 12 permits from the DEP, along with approvals from the borough and other agencies. Ragonese said the company has yet to file a formal application with the state.

Source: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/03/company_proposes_soil_recyclin.html