Source: http://www.nj.com, November 27, 2015
By Terrence T. McDonald
Two groups are asking a federal judge to stop New Jersey City University from constructing a building on chromium-contaminated land on the city’s West Side.
The groups, Interfaith Community Organization and Hackensack Riverkeeper, filed a motion in federal court on Nov. 16 alleging the construction violates a 2010 court order. They want the judge to appoint a “special master” to oversee the remainder of the NJCU construction on the land.
NJCU spokesman Daniel Elwell said the university and its partners are in “full compliance” with the 2010 order and believe additional oversight is “unnecessary.”
The rub is centered around a new building planned for NJCU’s western campus, a 21-acre site the university owns between West Side Avenue and Route 440. The multi-use building, which could include a parking garage and a ShopRite, would straddle land where chromium has been cleaned to residential standards and land where chromium-contaminated soil has been left in place but “capped” to isolate it, according to the court filing.
Interfaith Community Organization and Hackensack Riverkeeper allege construction of the building — called “Building 6” in the filing — would penetrate the cap containing the chromium contaminated soil, which they say is a violation of the 2010 court order, also known as a consent decree.
According to the filing, NJCU — and co-defendant Honeywell, which cleaned up the land — contend the 2010 court order allows them to breach the capped area in order to construct a building on the land.
READ THE MOTION
“NJCU believes that additional supervision is unnecessary given DEP’s oversight role, the fact that the remedy has already been implemented and that detailed procedures are in place to coordinate the redevelopment with the on-going operation and maintenance of the remedy,” Elwell told The Jersey Journal.
Honeywell spokeswoman Victoria Streitfeld noted that the state Department of Environmental Protection has decided the soil cleanup of the area is complete.
“Constructing buildings or paved areas is a well established means for ensuring the protectedness of a remedy,” Streitfeld said.
The contamination stems from Mutual Chemical, which was partially on the current NJCU site and partially on the site where The Home Depot is now located. The plant processed chrome ore there, and spillage from some of the processing polluted the land.
Some of the contaminated soil was used as fill across Route 440 on a site that, once cleanup is completed, is set to become a massive residential development called Bayfront.