NJ Sues Secaucus Food Recycling Business, Alleging Pollution

SECAUCUS, NJ — A food waste recycling business located in Secaucus has been named in a lawsuit filed by the New Jersey state Department of Environmental Protection.

The company is Wilenta Feed, Inc., located at 46 Henry Street in Secaucus, near Penhorn Creek. According to the lawsuit, part of Wilenta's business involves converting human food waste, largely bakery products, into animal feed or animal feed ingredients.

In the lawsuit, the state of New Jersey alleges that the business has been unlawfully storing food waste in open-air piles in its parking lot and that when it rains, the waste can run off and enter groundwater and the sewer system. From there, it can ultimately flow into local waterways, such as Penhorn Creek, a tributary of the Hackensack River.

"The introduction of food-waste pollutants to water bodies can significantly decrease dissolved oxygen levels of the water," the NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection wrote. "This decrease in dissolved oxygen levels can cause stress, asphyxiation and death in aquatic life."

The aim of companies like Wilenta is to keep food products out of landfills, in the thinking they can be recycled and turned into animal feed.

You can read the lawsuit here; it was filed Friday, May 7 by the office of New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, which files lawsuits on behalf of the state of New Jersey.

A lawyer for Wilenta said the company hopes to work with the DEP and resolve the issue.

“Wilenta Feed, Inc., has been working with the New Jersey community for over thirty years to improve the environment by removing discarded food products from the waste stream for use as animal feed, rather than letting it go into a landfill or incinerator," said the attorney, Maurice McLaughlin. "Wilenta is a family-owned business that strives to be in compliance with all its environmental requirements and best practices, and believed it had fully met all the Department’s concerns."

"If the DEP believes it hasn’t, Wilenta looks forward to working with it to resolving them now. It is and has always been Wilenta’s goal to be a good citizen and member of the community," he said.

Wilenta is located in the manufacturing/warehouse section of Secaucus, off Secaucus Road and near Penhorn Creek.

The lawsuit against Wilenta was one of seven the state DEP filed Friday, against companies it says has polluted in Camden, Trenton, Kearny, Edison, Bridgeton, Egg Harbor City, Butler and Vineland.

The NJ DEP is seeking a court order that will direct Wilenta to immediately halt the way it stores the food waste. In addition, the state is also seeking civil penalties against Wilenta and reimbursement to the DEP for the costs it incurred, or will incur, to investigate, inspect and monitor the property.

The DEP said it has monitored Wilenta's property "numerous" times starting in 2017, and thinks that the way they store the food waste — in open-air piles and unsealed containers — allows the waste to seep into the ground and sewers when it rains, and trickle into Penhorn Creek.

The Hudson Regional Health Commission and other agencies have recorded seeing food stored in unsealed containers in Wilenta's asphalt driveway, said the DEP. In 2017, the Hudson Regional Health Commission observed "a red liquid running from the food waste into a stormwater basin," according to the lawsuit.

The New Jersey DEP says by storing the food waste this way, Wilenta Feed is violating New Jersey's Water Pollution Control Act.

The DEP said it issued numerous warnings to Wilenta to bring them into compliance.

Be the first to know. Sign up to get Patch emails: https://patch.com/subscribe Contact this Patch reporter: Carly.baldwin@patch.com