Jersey City Company Cited For OperatingIllegal Solid Waste Facility

JERSEY CITY, NJ — State officials have filed an environmental enforcement action against a site in Jersey City, accusing it of "causing contaminated stormwater run-off, which in turn jeopardizes the environment and public health," among other things.

Seven new actions have been filed across the state, according to a Friday joint statement from the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).

They include Pace Glass Inc. in Jersey City prosecutors said. Read the full complaint here.

According to prosecutors:

"The State’s complaint alleges that Pace Glass, Inc., operates an illegal solid waste facility in Jersey City by storing large piles of crushed glass on two different properties—the Caven Point Avenue Site and the Bishop Street Site. According to the complaint, Caven Point Avenue Site alone contains a 40-foot-high stockpile of approximately 300,000 cubic yards of crushed glass material, which is mixed with plastic, paper, food debris and other solid waste. DEP in 2020 took administrative action against Pace Glass and Reliable Paper Recycling, Inc., the owner of the Caven Point Avenue Property, for the illegal storage of crushed glass material, but the piles of glass material remain on the properties."

Prosecutors continued:

"Today’s complaint alleges that Pace’s stockpiles of crushed glass mixed with other solid waste are causing contaminated stormwater run-off, which in turn jeopardizes the environment and public health. The stockpiled glass is also a source of dust and odors that impact the quality of life of nearby residents, and multiple fires occurred at the site in May 2021, directly threatening public safety. Today’s complaint seeks a court order directing Pace and other defendants to remove the piles of crushed glass, remediate contamination at the sites, and to pay DEP penalties under the SWMA and WPCA. Other defendants in the case include Efstathios Valiotos (owner of Pace), Reliable Paper Recycling, Inc., Bishop-Johnston, LLC (owner of the Bishop Street property) and Caven Point Road Associates (owner of the Caven Point Avenue property)."

In addition to the action in Jersey City, five others were filed on Friday at sites in Camden, Irvington, Newark and Somerville. Each of those municipalities are considered "overburdened" under New Jersey's Environmental Justice Law, because they have a significant low-income, minority and/or limited English proficiency population, authorities said.

Additional actions were filed in Pitman and Mays Landing.

Including the lawsuits announced Friday, the Attorney General's Office and NJ DEP have filed a total of 45 environmental justice cases since 2018. To date, the lawsuits have yielded nearly $20 million in judgments. Many of the cases have resulted in court orders requiring responsible parties to protect public health and the environment by remediating the properties at issue.
Such orders are important fiscally as well, as they ensure that polluters – not New Jersey taxpayers – bear the cost of cleaning up harmful contamination, state officials said.

"Pollution affects all of us, but it doesn't affect us equally," Acting Attorney General Andrew Bruck said.

"Lower-income neighborhoods have been disproportionately exposed to environmental harms," Bruck continued. "And far too often, the communities most affected by these harms have been communities of color. That legacy of environmental injustice is why, here in New Jersey, the Murphy Administration is prioritizing environmental cleanups in these overburdened neighborhoods."

Patch reporter Eric Kiefer contributed to this report.