Palmyra files suit over dump site
PALMYRA - The borough has sued the owner of a 104-acre property along Route 73 South, alleging the site was used as a dump instead of as a permitted recycling center or for other allowable uses.
An October trial date in Superior Court in Mount Holly has been scheduled in the case against Fillit, Inc., which had leased the land along Route 73 and Pennsauken Creek to Jersey Recycling Services LLC.
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In a related development last week, JRS was cited at a State Commission of Investigation hearing in Trenton in an ongoing probe of the largely unregulated recycling industry.
And in the most recent development, Sen. Raymond Lesniak, D-Union, introduced a bill Tuesday that would subject recyclers and broker and hauler middlemen to background checks and ban convicted felons from holding an indirect, non-licensed stake in a solid waste or recycling industry.
The SCI has found indiscriminate dumping of construction debris and contaminated soil or "dirty dirt" by parties with criminal backgrounds and often with ties to Philadelphia and New York organized crime since there are no required background checks for recycling operators or middlemen that include truck haulers and soil brokers.
The lawsuit accuses Fillit of violating a prior court settlement with the borough that required permitting and stipulated uses for the site. Instead, JRS dumped tons of construction debris and contaminated soil onto the land, part of which is an old landfill still waiting to be capped, according to the suit.
"We here in Palmyra are just dismayed and angered by the additional contamination that has taken place on the property," Borough Manager John Gural said.
"We have been trying as hard as we can to promote redevelopment at that site, but we are further hamstrung at this point."
He said the borough has been cooperating in the SCI investigation since 2013 and has provided them with numerous pieces of correspondence related to the site.
Gural also said he is not surprised by SCI testimony last Wednesday that it may take millions of dollars to clean up the land properly.
Gural estimated 300,000 cubic yards of illegal construction and soil waste has been deposited there, creating many hills and causing runoff contamination into Pennsauken Creek.
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Bradley Sirkin headed the JRS operation in Palmyra. He abandoned the site after the SCI contacted the state Department of Environmental Protection, which closed it down and ordered remediation, according to C. Andrew Cliver, who directed the hearing in Trenton.
Sirkin was convicted of credit card fraud in 1989 in Anaheim, California, and also of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, interstate transportation of stolen property, conspiracy and money laundering in September 1992 in Florida.
"Fillit and/or JRS, without obtaining the required governmental permits and approvals, caused or permitted certain materials and/or contaminated materials to be transported to and/or deposited on the Property in violation of applicable NJDEP regulations and/or other state ... and federal laws and regulations," the suit alleges, also referring to contamination as "hazardous substances."
The lawsuit further accuses Fillit of selling soil from the property without obtaining a permit, in violation of state law.
Gural said Sirkin told them he also had visions of turning the site into a large recycling operation and also mentioned a plan to create a fish farm. "We never knew for sure what he was doing with the property," Gural admitted.
However, the borough never received a soil removal permit fee required for moving soil off-site.
JRS also brought in thousands of cubic yards of possibly contaminated wood from an Asian Longhorn Beetle Quarantine site in New York City, according to the SCI investigation.
Gural said this insect can do serious damage to trees and forests and the borough is concerned about potential contamination to its redevelopment area.
Tom Farrell, DEP bureau chief of Solid Waste Compliance and Enforcement, said JRS had no permit to operate a recycling center or a solid waste facility but only a minor recycling exemption to accept 20,000 yards of landscaping material, such as household leaves and other vegetation, and to sell the resulting mulch, which JRS did sell.
Farrell said state approval would have been needed for JRS to accept material from a quarantined site like the one in New York City.
Lesniak's proposal would extend to the growing recycling sector the same safeguards he sought in a prior law to remove mob involvement from the garbage industry.
“In the 1980s my legislation — still referred to as the ‘A901’ law — drove the mob out of the solid and hazardous waste industries with strict licensing requirements, background checks and a manifest system,” Lesniak said.
Lawyer Warren Carr, who is representing Fillit in the Palmyra lawsuit, did not respond to a request for comment.
"What an opportunity to profit if you can just accept refuse and be able to dump it wherever you want. Fillit claims they never received a penny from Brad Sirkin, so his cost was zero," said borough solicitor Theodore Rosenberg, who filed the lawsuit for the municipality.
"Why isn’t a grand jury looking into this and why have so many at the state level been asleep at the wheel? It is inexplicable to me that in 2016 these people are still getting away with depositing these materials in our state anywhere they want."
Carol Comegno (856) 486-2473; or ccomegno@gannettnj.com