Facility, eyed for train station parking, to be closed at end of 2008
By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — The compost site off Alexander Road will undergo contamination testing as the township prepares for its closing at the end of 2008.
On Tuesday, the council awarded the final lease for the site, which is owned by the township.
Prior to that decision the council, acting as the Board of Health, voted 4-1 to have at least one groundwater test performed and have the matter referred to the township’s Environmental Commission. The Board of Health, which is made up of the members of the Township Council, met prior to the council session.
The council then voted unanimously to award the final operational contract to Carnevale Disposal Co., which has been running the site’s mulching and composting operations for a decade.
Under the terms of the contract, the company will pay $400 a month to rent the site, and continue to provide free mulch to West Windsor residents and accept their yard waste until the site’s closing at the end of 2008. In the meantime the township will test the site’s groundwater, at least once.
The site was previously used as a township landfill, and is considered a brownfield by the township and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. It currently has three groundwater testing wells and has been slated as a possible site for train station parking for West Windsor residents.
Capping the brownfield site with parking and similar facilities would require a lower level of remediation than other possible development.
Gary Carnevale of Carnevale Disposal Co. was not happy about his site entering its final year of operation, as the township begins preparations for its possible capping for a parking lot. He said the township was bending to complaints about the site and their own planning aspirations for new parking in the township’s redevelopment zone.
”I think they listened to a few residents who complained about the site, but they didn’t think about the whole township,” said Mr. Carnevale. “Now those free services we provided to residents will all be gone.”
Councilman George Borek urged that testing go ahead during the Board of Health meeting, prior to the regular council meeting.
”There might be a little contamination there, or there might be a lot, but we should test,” said Mr. Borek. “It would be prudent to test those wells and see what we have there.”
Attorney Michael Herbert Jr. filled in at the meeting for his father, Township Attorney Michael Herbert Sr. He said the council could make an inquiry to the Department of Environmental Protection about the status of the wells and see if the department had recently tested the site.
”The site does have DEP oversight,” Mr. Herbert said.
Councilwomen Heidi Kleinman cast the lone dissenting vote against testing. She said the council should first refer the matter to the Environmental Commission , but her suggestion did not receive support from a majority of council.
Councilman Charles Morgan said the possible delay in referring the matter to the Environmental Commission would be a case of “classic government bureaucracy getting in the way.”
Other concerns of council members included fears that a high reading would require immediate cleanup efforts, and deny the ability of the township to receive brownfield cleanup funding from the state, but Mr. Herbert said this was not always the case.
”It might be right away, it might be not,” said Mr. Herbert.
But the township would have to soon sign a memorandum of understanding with the DEP following any adverse test results, according to Mr. Herbert.
Later, during the council’s regular meeting, Mr. Borek requested escape language be included in the Carnavele Disposal Co. contract in the event redevelopment efforts move forward and the township was ready to begin capping the site with a surface parking lot.
”One of my concerns is that we are in the process of talking about redevelopment and a parking facility, and I don’t want to be limited by a contract that goes for a year,” said Mr. Borek. He then suggested language that would allow the township to end the operations at the site with a 60-day notice.
Council President Will Anklowitz agreed, and said that if West Windsor needed the site, the contract would not allow anything to be done until the spring of 2009.
Mr. Herbert said the inclusion of any language about shutting down the site on short notice would have drastic effects on the contract with Carnevale Disposal Co., and recommended against its inclusion in the contract.
Mr. Morgan agreed with Mr. Herbert’s assessment, and said that the township could be faced with some sort of penalty clause should the contract be terminated. He also said he didn’t think anything could be done with the site earlier than the end of the contract, at the close of 2008.
Mr. Carnevale on Thursday said it would be extremely difficult for his company to close the site with a 60-day notice unless the township was willing to pay for the removal of materials. He said most of the materials on site now won’t be sold until the spring, meaning he would suffer substantial financial losses.
”I need a way to recoup my costs,” Mr. Carnevale said.
Mr. Carnevale said he was allowing contractors working on the new Alexander Road bridge to store equipment and materials on his site, and any closing before the close of 2008 would mean those materials would need a new storage site.
The contract for the site stipulates that the company would begin the process of closing out the site in January 2008. The process would include clearing the site, and odor mitigation.

