Posted on March 16, 2017
By Jack Tomczuk, Press of Atlantic City
On a piece of land wedged between Hawk Haven Vineyard and Winery and the Cape May Airport sits mountains of dredged materials from Ocean City and Stone Harbor.
For the time being, the shipments of sediment have stopped due to a cease order from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. An inspector from the agency recently issued Cape Mining & Recycling LLC, the company that owns the dump, three violations for storage and reporting issues.
DEP spokesman Larry Hajna said the dredged materials stored at the site stood up to state inspection.
“The dredge materials were analyzed as part of those operations, and (it) was determined that it meets NJDEP Residential Soil Standards,” he said. “This is strictly an issue of storage.”
Hajna said the company has been cooperating with the DEP to correct the issues since they were notified of the violations Jan. 30.
Cape Mining & Recycling, which has a permit to receive dredged materials, did not return multiple requests for comment.
For neighbors, the site, which is barely visible behind the tree line off Railroad Avenue in the Erma section of the township, has been an eyesore and concern for nearly three years.
“I can’t believe they’re bringing that stuff here,” said Rich Pilling, 53, who lives near the dump site.
The shipments of dredged materials have been on-and-off for about three years and started up again near the end of the summer, neighbors said.
“It took awhile” for them to be shut down, said neighbor Nancy Frame, who has lived on Railroad Avenue since 1983. “It started after Labor Day and it’s just been a mess — dirt, mud.”
Pilling said he first called the DEP about 2½ years ago to express concerns about the site.
Pilling and Frame are siblings who live in separate houses on Railroad Avenue. They said trucks carrying the dredged materials stopped for a while but returned after summer.
“I had to clean my car all day — that gray mud,” Frame said. “When it’s dry, you have dirt blowing everywhere.”
Pilling said he hasn’t noticed any difference in his well water since the dredged material started being brought in, but he’s still concerned.
After evaluating the Erma site in December, a DEP inspector issued violations for improper storage, blending and a lack of reporting to the state — all relating to re-ceiving dredged material.
Specifically, the approved footprint of the dredged materials was exceeded by about 3.9 acres, the 35-foot height limit exceeded in multiple locations, blending of the material was taking place in unapproved parts of the property and bi-annual reports to the state were not submitted, according DEP records acquired by The Press of Atlantic City.
Cape Mining and Recycling was formed in 2013 as an outgrowth Future Mining & Recycling and Albrecht & Heun, according to the company’s website. The firm runs a similar dump site on Goshen Road in Middle Township.
Lower Township Code Enforcement Officer Walt Fiore said the municipality cited the company in December for dirt that was accumulating on Railroad Avenue. He said the company was “very cooperative.”
Cape Mining and Recycling installed a water station to wash the dirt off the tires of the trucks, and the township and county both sent street sweepers to clean up the road, Fiore said. The DEP oversees the handling of dredged material, he said.
“It sounds like they are managing the situation of Cape Mining, and they’re going to be on top of it,” Fiore said.
Source: Press of Atlantic City
