Keyport Sues, Says Former Landfill Is Polluting Raritan Bay

KEYPORT, NJ — The town of Keyport is suing the landowners on which a former landfill sits, saying that even though the landfill has been closed for 42 years, it continues to leak solid waste and heavy metals into Raritan Bay.

Keyport filed the lawsuit Jan. 28 against Bay Ridge Realty Corporation, a New York City-based company that owns the land. The former landfill is located at 55 Walnut Street in Keyport; it is a 50-acre industrial site that stopped being used as a landfill in 1979.

Since then, it has sat vacant and is now a wooded area.

Keyport says the landfill was never shut down correctly. The state of New Jersey's Landfill Database, which identifies the site as Waste Disposal Inc. Aero Marine, Keyport SLF, and Aeromarine Industrial Park Landfill, identifies the landfill as “not properly closed.”

"A large section of the western portion of the landfill, which borders Raritan Bay, does not have proper engineering controls in place and, accordingly, freely allows solid waste to migrate onto the shore and into Raritan Bay," read the town's lawsuit.

Keyport alleges Bay Ridge Realty failed "to properly cover and cap" the site. Keyport says there is visible exposed solid waste along the property’s northwestern coastline, which borders Raritan Bay, and that the trash "appears to have been in contact with Raritan Bay’s tidal waters."

“We’re simply letting them know we’re not going to put up with it anymore," Keyport Mayor Collette Kennedy told the Asbury Park Press. “We’re serious when we say, ‘Clean it up.’"

An attempt to contact Bay Ridge Realty for comment was not returned. They also did not return requests for comment to the Asbury Park Press.

Keyport is also fighting the state over this landfill: In their lawsuit, Keyport also says the state Department of Environmental Protection failed to enforce environmental laws at the site, specifically rules on how landfills must be capped.

The state DEP declined to comment, saying it could not comment on active litigation.

Soil samples taken by Keyport showed elevated levels of benzene, vinyl chloride and methane in the dirt there, including a “hot spot” of elevated methane levels in the north central portion of the landfill, according to the lawsuit.

Keyport said this concentration of this gas is "a dangerous risk that requires immediate mitigation." Methane gas can be explosive.

NJ Sierra Club applauds the lawsuit

The town of Keyport also said it is worried about heavy metals from the dump leaching out into not just Raritan Bay, but also nearby Chingarora Creek and groundwater.

Soil and groundwater samples from the site showed arsenic, vanadium, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), benzene, aluminum, arsenic, manganese and lead all at levels higher than recommended by the state Department of Environmental Protection, alleged the town.

Benzene and PCBs are known to cause cancer, according to Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.

"This is a major public health concern for people who live in this area or use the Raritan Bay for fishing or boating,” he said. "This site is right on the waterfront of a tidal bay and is very flood-prone."

The former landfill is bordered by residential properties on Walnut Street to the south, Raritan Bay to the west, and Chingarora Creek to the north and east. The landfill site is nearly surrounded by Chingarora Creek as it meanders and empties into Raritan Bay. Additionally, the landfill is surrounded by sensitive natural wetlands.

When it was operating, the dump accepted municipal, household, commercial and institutional waste, according to the NJ Sierra Club. It also accepted bulky waste like appliances, furniture, vehicles, trailers, and large vehicle parts and tires, vegetable and yard waste, and nonhazardous waste from oil spill cleanups and pesticides and residue from scrap-metal shredding facilities.

Keyport wants the property owner to pay for all further clean-up and capping of the landfill.

The town's lawsuit was filed by Eric Tomaszewski of the law firm McManimon, Scotland and Baumann in Roseland. It is not immediately known who the lawyer for Bay Ridge Realty is.

They have not yet filed a response in Monmouth County Superior Court.

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