Source: http://www.northjersey.com, October 14, 2014
By: Joe Malinconico
Facing cleanup costs that could exceed $1 million, municipal officials say they are hiring an environmental consultant to help them address the piles of debris that accumulated over the years at the city-owned Montgomery Street yard.
One of the key questions the company, DeFeo Asociates, is being asked to resolve is whether the debris is contaminated and how much extra it will cost to get rid of any polluted materials, officials said.
The city bought the property for about $1.2 million in 2009 as part of its plans to build a storage dome for road salt and recycling facility there, said Manny Ojeda, Paterson’s acting public works director. But now Paterson is looking at an expensive remediation before it can build anything at the site.
“That’s been an eyesore for more than 10 years,” said Ruby Cotton, the councilwoman who represents the 4th Ward where the Montgomery yard is located. “As soon as you turn down Lawrence Place, you see the piles. I feel bad for the people who have to live near that.”
Cotton said the city has a responsibility to get rid of the debris as fast as it can. “They wouldn’t want it next to their houses,” Cotton said of municipal officials.
As is often the case in Paterson, questions about who is responsible for the problems at the Montgomery yard get caught in the political crossfire between the current mayoral administration and the previous one.
“It’s very disheartening,” said Mayor Jose “Joey” Torres, who was mayor in 2009 and regained the job in this year’s election.  “That site was clean when we bought it. But because of what they dumped there, I’m looking at $1 million to clean it up.”
Torres said the Montgomery yards suffers from the dumping of contaminants over the past four years by the administration of former Mayor Jeffery Jones. Among the allegedly contaminated materials Jones’ administration hauled to Montgomery were soil from the Pennington Park project, asbestos tiles removed from city offices on Ellison Street and refuse cleaned from city sewer catch basins, according to Torres.
But Jones said the problems at Montgomery yard pre-dated his administration. “There were piles of debris there long before we got in,” said the former mayor.
Jones said he inherited pending enforcement actions involving Montgomery yard by the federal Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Environmental Protection.  “We adhered to the strictest standards when it comes to that site,” said Jones.
Cotton said Montgomery had become an illegal dumping ground years before the city bought the property. She said people would drive through the open front gate and get rid of trash, debris and other waste.
The situation at Montgomery yard has been a favorite target of criticism from city activist and former mayoral candidate David Gilmore. In particular, Gilmore has alleged that the city allowed the contractor working on the Pennington Park reconstruction project to dispose of debris from that job at Montgomery in violation of its contract.
Gilmore said frequent flooding by the Passaic River contaminated the topsoil in the park, resulting in the need for that material to be removed when the new fields were built. Gilmore said the contractor should have had to pay to haul the material elsewhere.
Last year, the city planned to spend about $500,000 to remove all the debris at the Montgomery yard, officials said. But the bids from three private companies came in ranging from $1.3 million to $1.5 million. In an effort to reduce the cost of hiring a private contractor, the city last year used municipal trucks to remove some of the materials like piles of wood chips.
Torres said he was anxious to move ahead with the Montgomery yard cleanup so Paterson could start work on a much-needed salt dome. He recalled the snow-plowing problems that happened last year when the city ran out of road salt.
“I don’t want that to happen again,” the mayor said. “We need a dome for the salt.”
– See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/paterson-faces-possible-1m-expense-for-cleanup-of-4th-ward-dumping-area-1.1108849#sthash.utd9bl9j.dpuf