E.B. landfill operators fined $2 million

The federal government has intervened to resolve longstanding regulatory issues with two landfills in East Brunswick, and has charged site owners over $2 million in fines.

Over a mile of riverfront property at the Edgeboro Landfill has been restored, with native trees and shrubbery, according to the Edison Wetlands Association. The Middlesex County Utilities Authority (MCUA) and Edgeboro Disposal Inc. (EDI), which both own landfills located along the Raritan River, recently settled with the federal Environmental Protection Agency over problems related to both landfills’ gas collection systems.

The agreements stipulate that both facilities will be required to enhance environmental controls at the site, conduct regular monitoring and make other infrastructure improvements in order to comply with federal standards.

“The United States filed these actions to ensure landfill operators, including the defendants in these cases, follow the requirements of the Clean Air Act by capturing and controlling the emissions of harmful air pollutants,” Ignacia Moreno, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in an Aug. 9 statement. “In resolving these actions, the United States secures relief that will improve air quality and harness landfill gasses to generate energy.”

EPA Assistant Regional Counsel Erick Ihlenburg said the landfill issues were first discovered in late 2006 by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

“The two landfills proved to be a challenging technical issue for the EPA,” he said. “We needed to make sure both areas collect enough landfill gasses to comply with federal regulations, and collect as efficiently as possible.”

Ihlenburg explained that the Middlesex County Landfill, owned and operated by the MCUA, is located directly adjacent and on top of the Edgeboro Landfill, which has been closed for a number of years. Their overlapping design made for challenging compliance issues.

“Portions of the old Edgeboro system were crushed by the MCUA landfill, and so it was very difficult to monitor the gas collection system,” Ihlenburg said, noting that the problems were strictly regulatory, and the sites were not penalized for any toxic or hazardous issues.

Ihlenburg said the MCUA, EDI and the EPA worked together to engineer a “state-of-the-art gas collection system.”

“It’s an over-designed super-collection system,” he said, noting that the system will hold up for the next 15 years. “Even if there are parts of it that are crushed, it will still be efficient.”

Both EDI and the MCUA have completed the installation of the new $6 million system. The MCUA also agreed to install 19 landfill gas collection wells and to implement a plan to monitor the landfill surface for methane gas emissions.

“They’re required to monitor gas collections through a series of pipes and wellhead — checking oxygen levels, temperature levels, and general surface monitoring,” Ihlenburg said.

Each wellhead will be checked on a monthly basis, and the landfill surface will be monitored every three to four months.

“It’s all about monitoring,” Ihlenburg said. “The owners will need to stay on top of the system to make sure everything’s running smoothly and to make necessary repairs and adjustments.”

EDI had previously settled with the federal government on July 13, and agreed to pay $750,000 in penalties to resolve the Clean Air Act violation. The MCUA, along with other responsible parties, were collectively required to pay $1.3 million in penalties.

“Our position is that the MCUA felt we had been complying with the spirit of the requirements and federal regulations, but there were reporting issues,” said MCUA Executive Director Richard Fitamant. “There seem to be several misunderstandings in what the general public believes.”

Fitamant said the gas collection system was originally installed in 1998 by the National Energy Resource Corp. (NERC). The MCUA purchased the system in 2007 as a way to lower fees for ratepayers. According to Fitamant, the EPA had issued technical violations to NERC prior to the purchase, and after lengthy negotiations, both parties agreed to a consent order to resolve the outstanding issue.

“These landfills have been a functioning operation for years, and there were certain problems that came with them,” said MCUA spokesman Tony Cicatiello. “The MCUA took the lead in resolving these issues after regulations caught up with how they were being operated.”

Out of the $1.3 million in fines, NERC is responsible for $1.1 million, while the MCUA is only responsible for little more than $200,000. Fitamant said that the MCUA will benefit from the new collection system and save approximately $40 million for the organization and its ratepayers.

Fitamant emphasized that the violations were strictly regulatory and that there have been no possible health hazards.

“We’re putting all the gas to use. Only 2 percent of gasses are unusable and nuisance gasses. They produce some odor, but they’re in no way toxic,” he said. “We’re going to keep doing our due diligence to control emissions from the landfill.”

But not all believe that the recent violations are merely regulatory issues and that the landfills are 100 percent safe.

Bob Spiegel, director of the Edison Wetlands Association, said that the landfill was to be listed as a Superfund site a few years ago.

“The site originally qualified, but it was pushed down because of political influence,” Spiegel said. “It’s well documented that the landfills took in a lot of hazardous waste. They really should be closed.”

Spiegel contends that waste from the landfills winds up in the Raritan River, and that there are several other outstanding issues that need to be resolved.

“It’s turned into a garbage monster. It’s huge and out of control. There are dead birds and animals because of garbage blowing off the landfill,” he said. “Some issues have been settled, but there’s still no relief. The only way we’d feel comfortable is if it was gone.”

Spiegel claims that the only reason the landfill will not be closed is because it is a “money maker,” and local residents do not realize the gravity of the situation.

“Right now, the Raritan is undergoing a renaissance. But people who are going down to the river to fish or just enjoy their surrounding are seeing a giant garbage dump and just accepting that as the way it is,” he said. “It’s time for residents to wake up and fight for their environment.”

Spiegel said that litigation recently forced the landfill to pull back a mile of garbage, but he wants more to be done. He noted that in order to properly restore the environment, the entire landfill would need to be capped, the groundwater pumped and treated, and a slow cleanup begun.

“We don’t need this blight on the river,” he said.