Vermin, foul odors, garbage blowing all over. This is what neighbors of the Middlesex County Landfill, Edgeboro Road, say they’ve been putting up with for years. A proposal to expand the landfill has those residents wondering just how bad things will get.
“You can’t even open your windows on a nice day,” said Denise Contrino, of Ellison Avenue.
Middlesex County plans to invest about $75 million to build three more “cells,” or areas used for the storage of solid waste. The cells will make the landfill fully operational and prolong its useful life, according to Middlesex County Freeholder Director David B. Crabiel. The additions, approved last week by the Middlesex County Utilities Authority (MCUA), will bring the total number of cells to nine.
All of the county’s solid waste is transported to the landfill, which Crabiel said is the only place in the county that is usable for such a purpose. According to the county, the landfill takes in about 2,350 tons of garbage a day from 335 trucks (based on data from 2005). With the new cells, the landfill is expected to be in use at least until 2015, when it will cover more than 300 acres of land and reach its permitted maximum height of 165 feet above sea level.
Part of the landfill dates to 1954, when it was privately owned. The section currently in use was purchased by the county in 1988 and is operated by the MCUA. The landfill is located west of Edgeboro Road and abuts the South River to the east and the Raritan River to the north.
County officials have long touted the landfill as being a less-expensive alternative to exporting waste out of state, saying that the operation is environmentally safe for long-term disposal. The landfill has a double-liner system designed to allow no more than 1 inch of water to seep through every 30 years, and other safeguards to prevent leaks. The county compacts and covers dumped materials each day to conserve space and prevent odors and leaching.
Along with nearby residents, a local environmental group is opposed to the landfill’s current operation.
“This landfill is just a giant environmental disaster area on the Raritan River,” said Robert Spiegel, executive director of the Edison Wetlands Association. The state Department of Environmental Protected cited the landfill last year for discharge of solid waste into the river, though the violation was from a portion of the landfill owned privately by Edgeboro Disposal Inc. and has been closed since 1987.
Spiegel said the landfill has a history of environmental violations, at times resulting in fines from the Middlesex County Public Health Department. The violations have included failure to contain debris because of a lack of proper covering, noise, foul odors and vermin.
“That site should have been a Superfund site,” Spiegel said. “It wasn’t, because the county had plans to expand it.”
Spiegel said expanding the landfill would “be a slap in the face to the Raritan River recovery” effort.
“They want to bury [the garbage] close to the Raritan, which is the cheapest method,” he said, noting how some refer to the river as the “valley of the dumps.”
Crabiel said he is a strong advocate of cleaning up the Raritan River.
“We’re covering that,” he said, “That will be a gem in a five-year period.”
Frank Coury, who lives on nearby McGuire Street, said there are alternatives to the landfill. He noted that other states are using less-costly means of disposal that use less space and do not create odors. Coury noted a cold composting system used in Bedminster, Tenn., that he said is clean and does not attract birds and rodents. He said it creates salable fertilizer.
“It’s a new technology they use when they have the intelligence to understand it,” Coury said.
Spiegel said a lot of people are making money off the landfill and want to see it maintained.
He disagreed with Coury on the issue of cost, saying that it would require more money, time and energy on the county’s part to come up with “a real solid waste plan.”
But Spiegel echoed Coury’s belief that the landfill system currently in use is outdated.
“The county treats garbage the same way as cavemen did,” Spiegel said.
“They are using a medieval technology of burning and covering,” Coury said.
Spiegel said the county should look for areas further from waterways.
“The county should be ashamed of this,” he said. “This goes back to Crabiel, something he’s had in designs for a long time.”
Contrino said she bought her home knowing that it was near the landfill, but that problems stemming from the landfill increased tenfold over the next few years as activity increased there. When the sixth, and latest, cell was added in 2005 and began to be filled, the smells and other problems became overwhelming, she said. She noted that there are more than 370 homes nearby in the Pine Ridge neighborhood, where she lives.
She said the county is responsive when residents complain, and that it does send inspectors down immediately to verify the problem. However, those complaints can only be taken during working hours, though the problems occur at all hours.
“I’d like to see a hotline set up,” Contrino said.
Spiegel said that “not a week goes by without a complaint.”
“They’re not protective of health, and are operating it like a bunch of toxic cowboys,” he said.
Crabiel acknowledged that the situation is not perfect.
“There’s no doubt, whenever you have a landfill, there are problems,” Crabiel said.
However, the cold composting method that Coury spoke about has been met with skepticism. The county explored another alternative several years ago, but was “blasted” by the media for the idea, Crabiel said.
Crabiel also noted that the county pays East Brunswick about $4.5 million a year for hosting the landfill.
But Coury noted that residents who live nearby do not get any more benefit from that money than those miles away.
Spiegel said the money does not make up for the negative impact.
“You shouldn’t need to poison a town to get revenues for that town,” he said. “That section of East Brunswick will become a blight.”
“We just want our quality of life to be like everyone else’s in town,” Contrino said.
MCUA Executive Director Richard Fitamant could not be reached for this story.