New Jersey Could Become A Dumping Ground for Hazardous Waste

Clean Water Action issued the following statement in regards to the New Jersey State Senate voting 38 yay (and 2 not voting) to approve the Waste Facilities Bill S879 (Sweeney) today (for more information see earlier press release issued earlier today):

“Shame on the New Jersey Senate for passing a bill (S879) which will yet again make New Jersey the dumping ground for other people’s hazardous waste with a company who has total disregard for our public health and safety,” said Alyssa Bradley, Energy Organizer, Clean Water Action. “We urge the Assembly to vote against this bill, as well as the Governor, if it lands on his desk. We don’t be the dumping ground for everyone else. We don’t want to poison our families. This is no smoking gun, this is the real thing – a polluter with a known record for causing harm.”

Trenton, NJ—Today, Clean Water Action is at the New Jersey Statehouse in Trenton urging State Senators to vote against the Waste Facilities Bill S879 (Sweeney) / A3116 (Burzichelli) which gives a green light without current hazardous waste standards to the DuPont (now called Chemours) Chambers Works Hazardous Waste Facility in Salem County.

Clean Water Action will be talking with legislators and tracking the votes closely – we will send you an update after the Senate vote takes place (happening at 2 pm today).

The proposed legislation creates a loophole that redefines a hazardous waste facility so that Chambers Works would be able to operate as a hazardous waste processing and discharge facility without meeting the rigors of the Act.

Clean Water Action urges all New Jersey legislators to vote against S879/A3116 because:

• This expansion would lead to more pollution in the Delaware River and Bay. The Chambers Works facility was identified under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) Toxics Resource Inventory as the largest discharger of hazardous waste in New Jersey for many years.
• Currently, they can only discharge waste generated on the site. This bill would allow the import of hazardous waste from all over, including wastewater from fracking.
• DuPont has a history of violations at the Chambers Works facility. For instance, in 2011 in a settlement agreement with USEPA, DuPont paid a $250,000 civil penalty to settle alleged violations of hazardous waste regulations at Chambers Works.
• DuPont’s attempt to bring VX Nerve Agent to the Chambers Works Facility for dumping into the Delaware River in 2004-2006 and similar extremely dangerous efforts could arise again if the facility is allowed this loophole.

“If in the name of public safety you wouldn’t want to mistakenly issue permits or licenses to a murderer to carry a gun, then why would you want to issue a permit to DuPont under its old permit to have the potential to cause harm,” said Alyssa Bradley, Energy Organizer, Clean Water Action. “A background check would clearly demonstrate DuPont’s total disregard of public safety and the well being of nearby communities, residents and the environment as demonstrated in Pompton Lakes, NJ. S879 allows DuPont Chambersworks to process all kinds of hazardous waste, even fracking waste from all over, and dump its effluents into the Delaware Bay, a vital fishing ground, a migratory bird stop and much more.”

Background on DuPont’s legacy of pollution:

Residents are now calling on Governor Phil Murphy to push the federal government to add their neighborhood and an adjacent former DuPont munitions site to the Superfund program, which is used to clean up the nation’s worst pollution.

Residents’ homes now sit above the plume contaminated with the cancer-causing solvents PCE and TCE that has migrated for decades off DuPont’s property.

Residents are calling for a thorough health study to determine the connection between the solvents beneath the homes and the elevated levels of kidney cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the neighborhood.

A 2009 study by the state health department had first identified the elevated cancers levels, and said that while the DuPont pollution could not be definitively linked as the cause, it could not be ruled out, either.

The Record and NorthJersey.com recently published a four-part investigative series looking at the 40-year history of DuPont pollution in the neighborhood, and the company’s pattern of pushing back against state and federal regulators about cleaning up various pollution from the munitions facility, as well as its repeated efforts to downplay the extent of the pollution and the potential health dangers to the public.

Since our founding during the campaign to pass the landmark Clean Water Act in 1972, Clean Water Action has worked to win strong health and environmental protections by bringing issue expertise, solution-oriented thinking and people power to the table. We will protect clean water in the face of attacks from a polluter friendly Administration and Congress. Clean Water Action has 150,000 members in NJ and nearly 1 million nationwide. www.cleanwater.org/nj

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