Camden Seizes Property With Illegally Dumped Material, Mayor Says

CAMDEN, NJ — The city will remove an illegally-dumped pile of contaminated dirt and trash that has been a blight in Camden's Bergen Square neighborhood for years, officials said.

Officials stood Monday in front of the visible pile at 7th and Chestnut streets to announce the beginning of a joint cleanup effort. The stockpile of dumped material along the block has created an environmental health hazard for years, Mayor Victor Carstarphen's office said.

State and local officials will use $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to clean up the 1,900-ton pile, as the Cherry Hill Courier-Post reported.

"The environmental threat presents a significant health, and safety risk to the residents due to potential exposure from hazardous substances migrating from the location, including during the summer months due to airborne dust negatively impacting air quality and erosion of the soil waste impacting the streets, sidewalks, and sewers in the area," the city said.

The state Department of Environmental Protection confirmed that 10 soil samples taken from around the property all contained "at least one hazardous substance" that exceeded state Residential Direct Contact Soil Remediation Standards, including known carcinogens.

A licensed site remediation professional arrived on scene Sept. 26 and will begin collecting and sampling materials found in the soil dumped there, Camden officials said. The process will take time; actual removal should begin in summer 2023, per the Courier-Post.

Officials are also worried the pile could collapse, bringing the contaminated debris and dirt onto sidewalks and alleyways, and the nearby residence.

There's no indication of who exactly has been doing the dumping over the years — the pile began growing in 2016 when developers purchased the land and started dumping, a CBS report said.

The state filed a lawsuit against previous owner William Yocco last year. The Department of Environmental Protection alleged his company, S. Yaffa and Sons, stockpiled solid waste (including contaminated soil, construction and demolition debris, and waste tires) at the property for decades before selling it to Weyhill Realty Holdings in 2019.

Property owners may also have failed to close a 500-gallon underground storage tank under the site for two decades, the state alleged.

The DEP's lawsuit notes Camden's significant low-income and minority population, and said that similar communities across the state have been "disproportionately exposed to high-polluting facilities and to the resultant threats of high levels of air, water, and soil pollution, and accompanying potential for increased public health impacts."

Related article: Massive Illegal Dumping Ground In Camden Neighborhood Has Residents Calling ' Environmental Racism'

"Residents of all communities should receive fair and equitable treatment in matters affecting their environment, community, homes, and health without regards to a community's socioeconomic condition," the state said in a filing.

The city of Camden, the Camden Redevelopment Agency, Camden County officials, and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection reached a memorandum of understanding in April to begin taking steps to clean the site up. A court order directed the current owners, Weyhill Realty Holdings, to take immediate action but "no corrective action has been taken to date" on their part, the city said.

"The situation is simply unacceptable as the health, safety and welfare of the entire Camden community must remain a top priority," Carstarphen said. "The private property owner has failed our City by not taking corrective action. That is why we are accessing the site to allow the Licensed Site Remediation Professional to start this process. Camden is sending a message that this illegal activity and other illegal dumping will not be tolerated."

The city also issued a Cease Operations Order for the site in April 2021, which Weyhill complied with.

More information about the project timeline is in the Cherry Hill Courier-Post.