Claiming its application to construct a solid waste transfer station in Howell has been pushed off for years, Resource Engineering has filed a legal complaint against the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders, the Monmouth County Solid Waste Advisory Council (SWAC) and the Monmouth County Department of Public Works.
Resource Engineering is seeking to have its plan to establish a solid waste transfer station at 34 Randolph Road, near Route 547, Howell, included in the county’s Solid Waste Management Plan. The proposal has been at the county level for several years awaiting formal action.
Previous reports indicated the proposed facility would accept 1,500 tons per day of cleanup debris and construction debris. The debris would be sorted and recyclable materials would be removed. The debris would then be transferred to other locations for final disposal.
Resource Engineering filed the complaint against the county on Aug. 10.
Monmouth County Attorney Michael D. Fitzgerald said outside counsel will handle the lawsuit. As of Sept. 23, the county’s legal representatives had not responded to the complaint.
Howell’s Township Manager Brian Geoghegan said the township attorney would seek to intervene in the matter.
“We will fight to prevent the construction of the transfer station in Howell,” Geoghegan said.
According to the complaint, in 2015, Resource Engineering began the process of seeking
approvals from Monmouth County to construct and operate a new solid waste transfer
station in Howell.
The complaint states that the “need for a new solid waste facility is indisputable; construction debris and other materials generated by the rapid expansion of residential housing in Lakewood and surrounding municipalities is currently being trucked through Ocean and Monmouth counties, which is causing pollution, stressing local and county roads, depriving Monmouth County of tax revenue and jobs.”
According to the complaint, Monmouth County and Howell officials agreed that the need for the new solid waste facility is indisputable and it asserts that SWAC and Howell “both gave their blessing to the project; Howell by letter of support dated March 6, 2017, and
SWAC by unanimous approval on May 18, 2017.”
The freeholders were scheduled to vote on the matter on July 27, 2017, but that did not occur.
According to the complaint, on the date of the meeting, Howell Mayor Theresa Berger, who was out of the country, “sent a scathing e-mail objecting to the proposed transfer station; an inexplicable repudiation of the township’s March 6, 2017 letter, upon which SWAC and other county officials had relied in moving forward with the project.”
The complaint alleges that the county obstructed and hindered Resource Engineering’s proposal.
“Instead of questioning the mayor’s about-face, taking testimony on the application and voting, the board (of freeholders) ran for cover; the meeting was canceled, and Resource Engineering’s application was improperly sent back to SWAC.
“Thus began a now more than three-year merry-go-round of defendants’ interference, stonewalling and red tape. (Resource Engineering believes) powerful political interests in Monmouth County and beyond coordinated with (the freeholders) and SWAC to improperly interfere with, obstruct and hinder Resource Engineering’s proposal,” according to the complaint.
Resource Engineering wants Monmouth County to stop “endless studies” and claims it is entitled to recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Respectfully, the court should order SWAC and (the freeholders) to stop their endless ‘studies’ of plaintiff’s proposal and approve the application. Resource Engineering is also entitled to recoup from defendants the hundreds of thousands of dollars it spent over the past three years on experts, lawyers and other professionals trying to satisfy defendants’ demands.”
In September 2018, additional correspondence was sent to the freeholders from Howell which indicated that a traffic study commissioned by the county should account for other anticipated development in the area of Randolph Road and Route 547.
On Jan. 17, Berger attended a SWAC meeting at which an update regarding a county traffic study that has been conducted in conjunction with the proposal for the solid waste transfer station was on the agenda.
Berger subsequently reported that SWAC was not prepared to share the county’s preliminary report with the public.
In March, members of the Howell Township Council said they wanted to conduct their own traffic study in regard to the proposed solid waste transfer station.