LEDGER FORUM
Travel down Baker’s Basin Road in the early morning and some days your eyes sting with the stink of a New England paper mill town in the ’60s or ’70s. The source is at Mid-Jersey Mulch Products, 227 Bakers Basin Road.
What began a few years ago as a fairly benign-looking mulch business now appears to be eating the earth in that corner of Lawrence. Besides the mountains of wood pulp, there are what look like slag heaps of concrete.
On March 20, there was a public notice in The Times of Trenton that Mid-Jersey will have its capacity increased from 750 tons/day to 1,050 tons, and 4,500 tons/week to 6,300 tons. Right now Mid-Jersey is a Class B recycling facility. That means they are allowed to chop up trees (parts and stumps), unpainted and untreated wood and leaves. They will soon be allowed to add "concrete, bricks, blocks, rocks and asphalt."
Besides the air pollution, are the wetlands adjoining the canal endangered by the proximity of the pulp mountains? Is groundwater likely to be affected by runoff from things like asphalt?
Before the Mercer County Improvement Authority "upgrades" this facility, shouldn’t someone in the state, county or township government look into this pending amendment to the Mercer County Solid Waste Management and Recycling Plan and tell the rest of us what they think about this business and its plans to expand?
Lawn Park Avenue