Murphy DEP Continues A Long Pattern Of Lax Enforcement And Neglect Of The People Of Pompton Lakes
Community Shut Out As Dupont Lawsuit And Complete Cleanup of Site Stall
DEP Fails To Respond To Passaic River Violations
Dupont and DEP have been abusing the people of Pompton Lakes for decades.
Despite another typical self serving and highly spun press release on re-opening a prior flawed and dirty “Natural Resource Damage” deal with Dupont, DEP has done virtually nothing to hold Dupont accountable for decades of toxic pollution.
The DEP Dupont dirty deal was so bad, it even got criticized by the mainstream press, see the Bergen Record story: Dupont deal gave state more tainted soil (12/6/10)
“Bill Wolfe of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility’s New Jersey chapter agreed. “DuPont got a sweetheart deal and DEP didn’t do their homework,” Wolfe said. “The deal must be renegotiated and DuPont forced to pay fair compensation, especially to Pompton Lakes residents who have suffered for decades.”
I put DEP Commissioner LaTourette on notice regarding some of the latest abuses, based on a call from a good friend from Pompton Lakes:
———- Original Message ———-
From: Bill WOLFE <>
To: shawn.latourette@dep.nj.gov, Sean.Moriarty@dep.nj.gov
Cc: O’Neill, James, senbsmith <SenBSmith@njleg.org>, sengreenstein <sengreenstein@njleg.org>, asmmckeon <asmmckeon@njleg.org>
Date: 08/02/2023 7:09 AM PDT
Subject: Enforcement – Pompton Lakes
Dear Commissioner LaTourette:
I received a phone call yesterday from a former Pompton Lakes Councilman who expressed his frustration with lack of DEP enforcement and compliance monitoring for violations he had notified the DEP hotline and DEP field enforcement staff about.
You recently consolidated DEP enforcement in the Commissioner’s office, so I reach out to you directly to respond adequately to these apparent violations.
1) Flood Hazard, Stormwater and Wetlands violations
Potential violations were observed and alleged at property on the banks of the Passaic River, 278 Wanaque Avenue, Pompon Lakes.
The Google maps of the site shows large piles of soil and soil processing equipment in the Passaic River buffer and apparent regulated floodplain, see:
2) Dupont Natural Resource Damage (NRD) litigation
As you know, on March 26, 2019, the Department re-opened the prior flawed Natural Resource Damage Settlement with Dupont by filing a new NRD lawsuit for the Dupont Pompton lakes facility, see:
https://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases19/Pompton-Lakes_Filed-Complaint_and_Jury-Demand.pdf
The Department has failed to consult with communities regarding the initiation, prosecution, negotiation, settlement, allocation of funds, and restoration of natural resources involved in NRD lawsuits. That issue drew strong community criticism recently in Toms River BASF NRD deal, and in response, the Department made commitments to reform NRD program practices to provide greater community involvement.
Accordingly, I write to demand that the Department hold a public hearing in Pompton Lakes to brief the community on the status of the NRD lawsuit and to receive public comments on NRD related issues.
3) Failure to Conduct Remediation At Dupont Site
The former Councilman advised me that the long delayed complete remediation of the Dupont Pompton Lakes site has apparently stalled. He noted no activity at the site. As the remediation at this site is managed by a private LSRP, there is little transparency or public participation. Accordingly, I also demand that the Department: 1) hold a public hearing in Pompton Lakes to update the community on the status of the cleanup and solicit public comments; and 2) assume direct oversight of the remediation pursuant to NJSA 58:10C-27. Direct oversight of remediation by department; (the site is also a RCRA/HSWA Corrective Action site, so joint EPA and DEP oversight is triggered).
The people of Pompton Lakes have suffered decades of abuses to their health, environment, community and property values as a result of egregiously irresponsible and illegal toxic pollution from the Dupont site.
The Department has failed the people of Pomtpon Lakes by decades of lax enforcement of NJ’s environmental laws and delegated federal laws.
I became aware of and initially worked on the Dupont site in 1986-87, supervising staff that conducted a RCRA/HSWA preliminary assessment at the site and managing the corrective action programs associated with the EPA RCRA grant.
I was appalled by what I learned.
Since then, I’ve worked for many years trying to help the people of Pompton Lakes and to hold DEP and USEPA accountable for lax permitting and enforcement action.
You are fully aware of these intolerable conditions and therefore must act and do better.
Bill Wolfe