Bergen County Fined $88K For Illegally Buried Ammo: Report

MAHWAH, NJ – Bergen County recently paid an $88,000 fine to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to satisfy a violation stemming from the 2017 discovery of illegally buried lead ammunition on the grounds of the Bergen County Law and Public Safety Training Center in Mahwah, according to a report.

The EPA has since closed out an investigation it launched shortly after the casings were pulled from the Mary Ann Collura Memorial Pistol Range in April 2017, NJ.com reported.

During a news conference held at the time to announce the discovery, township officials and the New Jersey Sierra Club said they were notified by an anonymous source about the bullet fragments and shell casings. Township officials said the materials had been there for about a year and called for an investigation, Patch reported at the time.

Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, criticized the fine to NJ.com and told the media outlet he believes the county had been dumping ammunition there for years and the penalty should have been higher “to act as a deterrent and to hold them accountable.”

The shooting range is located near two public parks, the Ramapo River and the township’s well, which, Tittel pointed out to NJ.com makes it an “environmentally sensitive” area and the illegally buried ammo could “have serious impacts to the community and drinking wells.”

Michael Pagan, a county spokesman said, “The County is pleased to have resolved the matter through a mutually satisfactory agreement with the EPA. The County not only took the appropriate steps to remediate the site to ensure the safety of the public but also installed a state of the art bullet trap system that eliminates any future environmental issues.”