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| Arial view of Philadelphia and Camden |
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Yet Waterfront South continues to suffer from numerous contaminated and polluting sites, among them scrap metal recyclers and junkyards, two ship terminals, the CCMUA sewage treatment plant, the regional trash-to-steam incinerator, the PSE&G power plant, and the G-P Gypsum plant. The environmental destructiveness of the contaminated areas and the polluting institutions are the major contributors to the high rates of respiratory disease among the area’s residents. It is also these institutions that impact the redevelopment potential of the southern Camden waterfront.
The environmental reality of Waterfront South, indeed of all the City of Camden, is an affront to the God who created the land, the water and the air; these elements continue to sustain life, such as it is, in Camden, NJ. The sacredness of the earth has been violated in this city; our continued neglect of this violation cries makes us complicit in this violation. The Creator demands that we act to heal a wounded planet and community.
From June to October 2008, the committee of the Center for Transformation heard four invited lectures on the environmental problems that plague Camden and their detrimental effect on the quality of life in Waterfront South. This essay, based on these presentations, reviews a range of environmental problems and some of the steps being taken to address them. The problems are serious and cannot be fully resolved in the short term. Yet tremendous gains have been made in the last few years and there are reasons to hope for further improvements in the near future. The state has the ability to address these issues fully, even though for the present, in Thomas Corcoran’s words, “all of Camden is a walking case of environmental injustice.” The presenters during this project of self-education were Thomas Corcoran of the Camden Redevelopment Agency, Andrew Kricun, Assistant Director, Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority, Geoff Seibel and members of the governmental and non-governmental agencies working to clean up the Martin Aaron Superfund Site and Helene Pierson, Executive Director of the Heart of Camden, Inc.
The content of these presentations was ably edited and prepared for this collection by Celia Chazelle, a member of the Center for Transformation team.
The essay will unfold in the order of the presentations to the Center for Transformation executive committee. The intention of this essay is to provide the reader with some of the information that is available on the environmental challenges that are facing the Waterfront South neighborhood of Camden, NJ. Knowledge is power; the more we know about the problems that we face, the more capable we will be in the work of transformation that this city desperately needs and that God calls for.
Presentation I:
Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority (CCMUA).
This large regional sewage treatment plant treats all of the sewage from all of Camden County’s 37 municipalities, serving a population of close to 500,000. The facility cost $850 million to build. Ninety miles of pipes and 25 pumping stations deliver the sewage to the facility. The CCMUA treats 58 million gallons of sewage per day, including both household and “pre-treated” industrial waste. Until recently, the CCMUA operated a sludge composting facility on site, but closed it due to financial considerations, poor operating performance and odors. The sewage treatment plant, particularly the composting facility, had caused horrific sewage odors in the Waterfront South neighborhood for years. In 1998, a resident group brought a citizen enforcement action against the facility for the odor violations, and obtained a settlement through which the CCMUA agreed to do over $5 million worth of odor control upgrades. Although best known for foul odors, the plant also emits hydrogen sulfide, and various VOCs(volatile organic compounds).
The history of the treatment plant site goes back to the 1880s and ‘90s when it was the main dispersal site because of its physically low location which provided for easy disposal of raw sewage into the Delaware River. The first sewage plant was built in 1954 by the City of Camden. In 1978, the CCMUA acquired the original plant from the City of Camden. From 1984- 1990, the current facility was built permitting the decommissioning of 54 plants in 37 towns of Camden County. Of four plants discharging wastewater into the Delaware, including Pennsauken, Cramer Hill and Gloucester City, Waterfront South was selected in the 1980s to incorporate all of them because it had the most flow directed to it, by far. Thus, it would be the easiest and most cost effective point of consolidation. This plan made the Waterfront South facility the biggest plant south of Trenton. Andy Kricun’s counterpart in an Ohio waste treatment plant said that his processing site for sludge-to-compost was 20 miles away from the collection point whereas CCMUA is 100 yards from the neighborhood, a discrepancy Mr. Kricun acknowledged, in hindsight, was a result of poor planning. This was one of the main reasons that the CCMUA closed the composting facility less than five years after opening it.
There were a series of improvements in a structurally difficult situation. First, a major problem related to the already mentioned odor problems in the 1990s was the attempt to create a waste-to-compost facility on site. In 1999 the waste-to-compost project was eliminated. Although the compost production goal was environmentally laudable, the facility suffered from severe drawbacks; it was unreliable, breaking down every three days, producing an awful biomass odor.
Second, after a $3 million investment the number of tons processed per day has been reduced from 200 tons per day at 23 tons per truckload with 9 truckloads a day to 160 tons per day. This has reduced the number of truckloads per day to 7, resulting in a corresponding reduction in odor potential. The odor occurs when the doors of the facility are left open; the doors open to allow the trucks to leave. At times these doors were left open. The CCMUA corrected this problem, except in the case of mechanical malfunction, via the installation of an automated door closing mechanism.
Third, following the visit of an odor expert from Cambridge, MA in 2000, chemical scrubbers were installed at a cost of $7 million.
Fourth, CCMUA adopted a zero tolerance attitude toward the operators at the facility. Mr. Kricun noted that about three-quarters of the recorded NJDEP odor violations in 1997/1998 were due to negligence due to a lack of supervision by senior supervisors. The CCMUA responded by placing senior supervisors on every shift. The operators who are negligent in the processes that impact odor, particularly closing the doors of the facility, have been penalized by a 5 day suspension of pay. There are new safety cameras in the factors follow the appropriate procedures that impact the odor.
Despite the improvements, 160 tons of sludge are hauled out of the facility in trucks 7 times a day. The CCMUA is investing over $20 million in a new approach called sludge drying which is expected to be completed by the spring of 2010. This approach is mechanically more reliable and is not as smelly as the compost. Mr. Kricun explained that Camden sludge is thicker because it is combined with sand and grit (because of Camden’s old combined sewer system), so it is more difficult to process. A more heavy duty conveyance is needed. The CCMUA has already awarded a $14 million contract to a vendor who is in the process of fabricating the new sludge drying facility. It will also go out for bids within the next 60 days to procure a contractor to install the new system. When the facility is completed, the sludge will have been converted into a dried, odorless powder that will be hauled out in a totally enclosed vacuum truck. In this way, the sludge will never again be exposed to the open air. The CCMUA believes that the odor from the sludge currently is responsible for 80-90% of the odors from the plant and that this new sludge drying process will completely eliminate this odor source.
In the meantime, a new odor protection process is being used right now. This is a foam spray with a masking agent (another smell). This environmentally safe foam will be covered with a tarp within the truck. In addition, the CCMUA Board of Commissioners just authorized another upgrade of the plant’s odor control systems--- an upgrade of the oldest odor control systems to take advantage of newer technology that is now available. This project is expected to cost about $6 million.
The CCMUA facility in Waterfront South is the child of poor urban planning on the part of Camden County officials and the political leaders of Camden City. Under the leadership of Mr. Kricun many of the problematic dimensions of locating a waste treatment plant in a neighborhood, using older technology, have been addressed, and future plans reflect the seriousness with which the management takes the concerns of their neighbors.
Presentation II:
Brownfields (Thomas Corcoran)
Brownfields are sites of industrial and commercial facilities where the land has sustained low level contamination from hazardous waste or pollution. In order to allow reutilization of the land, the sites must undergo a lengthy and complicated remedial process. Different standards apply depending on the intended uses, but in general there are several stages, including assessment of the damage, the preparation of an application for remediation to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and the development of workplans before the actual remediation work can begin. When a site receives the classification of brownfield, it takes up to fifteen years for a project to get underway. Despite this length of time, however, in a city like Camden it is imperative to move forward expeditiously with these projects. Otherwise, since much of the land is classified as brownfield, virtually no new development would be possible. As an example of the potential benefits, Corcoran pointed to the bequest from the estate of Joan Kroc that will go to the Camden Chapter of the Salvation Army to build and operate a new community center in Cramer Hill. This will be on a newly cleaned municipal landfill.
Brownfields on most land of economic potential in New Jersey have already been cleaned up; Camden is one of the last urban centers in the state still suffering from a significant acreage of misused and underutilized territory. Among the previously rehabilitated brownfields in the city are the former property of Campbell’s Soup, now Campbell Field; the RCA building, and The Victor, which has been gutted and restored as an apartment building. Still affected brownfields along the waterfront include the two port facilities operated by the South Jersey Port Corporation, at Broadway Street and Beckett Street, the G-P Gypsum Company, and Camden Iron and Metal. The industrial uses at both ends of the waterfront inhibit development of the land in between, much of which is a wasteland. Compounding the environmental injustice of the presence of the operations mentioned above, it should be noted, are the inordinately low property taxes they pay to the city. Taxes have been set far below the land’s actual value. The Beckett St. Terminal sits on 125 acres and pays no property taxes at all. G-P Gypsum owns twenty-two acres yet pays only $105,000 in taxes; Camden Iron and Metal, which crushes cars and causes “incalculable environmental damage” owes only $26,000 in taxes on six acres. In total, 188 acres of property contribute only $131,000 in taxes.
A. The Beckett Street Terminals
The two Camden terminals of the South Jersey Port Corporation, located at 2nd and Beckett Streets and at 100 Atlantic Avenue, handle about 3.5 million tons of cargo every year. Opened in 1931, the Beckett Street Terminal now has only roughly 130 employees, no more than fifteen of them Camden City residents. Once a vibrant residential community, the surrounding area gradually declined after the terminal was constructed, to a large degree because of the diesel fumes from the ships and the 60,000 trucks that come annually to take cargo to and from the ships. The owners and employees of the terminal have so far succeeded in resisting pressure to move the port to a non-urban location. In this, they have been assisted by Dennis Culnane, a lobbyist whose company makes $10,000/month to represent the port’s interests; Culnane claims, misleadingly, that 20,000 jobs are at stake. Most politicians are afraid to oppose the terminal and its employees, even as the state continues to subsidize the site.
B. The Georgia-Pacific Gypsum Company
Located south of the Beckett Street Terminal at 1101 S. Front Street, in operation since 1962 (Georgia Pacific bought the facility in 1996), G-P Gypsum produces various types of gypsum drywall or wallboard. A recent Air Toxic Study by the Department of Environmental Protection identifies the plant as one of the deadliest sources of air pollution in the area, a major contributor of particulate pollution, arsenic, and lead. According to the “Environmental Justice for All” website, the facility “emits over 85 tons per year of nitrogen oxides, 123.4 tons of sulfur dioxide, almost 4 tons of VOC’s, 12.49 tons per year of carbon dioxide, and 37.33 tons per year of PM-10. Its hazardous air pollutants include arsenic, barium cadmium, chlorine, chromium, copper, lead, nickel, selenium, and formaldehyde. It also uses numerous hazardous substances in its production process, such as VOC’s, portland cement, and acetylene. In 2002 it was fined for exceeding its allowable particulate emission levels.”
C. Camden Iron and Metal (Front and Atlantic Streets)
The largest scrap metal operation in South Camden, this company, which has two sites along the River (the other is on Pine Street) is the worst source of environmental damage for Waterfront South. The DEP lacks jurisdiction over landfills, and in consequence, though one of the strictest environmental agencies in the country, it cannot control this site. The facility crushes and shreds discarded automobile parts and other metals. The “Environmental Justice for All” website states that its shredder and frag division on Front and Atlantic produces 150-170 tons per day, or 35,000 tons per year of automobile shredder fluff, and emits fine particulates, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chlorine, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, and VOCs into the air. The Air Toxic Study indicated potentially unsafe levels of PM 2.5, arsenic, cadmium, lead, nickel near the facility. Corcoran noted, however, that plans are underway to move the plant away from Camden. If it goes, the Beckett Street Terminal will lose one of its major export commodities (the shredded metal), and that will help the argument for closing it. A new state-of-the-art port facility may be established at Paulsboro, or the state could expand the Broadway terminal.
If the Becket Street Terminal should close, and if a PATCO extension is built, the area might be transformed. A vibrant community could be developed on the 150 acres belonging to the terminal, with new units of housing and supporting retail and park land. The growth could then help revive adjacent areas, and the Heart of Camden neighborhood would no longer be an orphan.
III. Martin Aaron Superfund Site (Geoff Seibel)
Superfund is the name commonly used to refer to a law created in 1980, in the wake of the Love Canal disaster, to protect communities from abandoned areas severely contaminated with toxic waste. A superfund site represents a significantly worse case of soil contamination than a brownfield. A website listing superfund sites in New Jersey as of August 1997 indicates twenty-five such sites in Camden.
The Martin Aaron site at 1542 South Broadway is located in the block framed by Broadway, Jackson and Everett Streets, and 6th Street. This 2.4 acre space presently contains properties owned by Comarco Quality Pork Products, a pork processing and packaging firm, and Ponte Equities, a firm that owns numerous buildings but manufactures little, in addition to the biggest property, formerly owned by Martin Aaron, Inc. A fourth property on the block is private. From 1968 to 1998, Martin Aaron and a number of other companies were active on the site reconditioning drums for resale that contained hazardous substances, by draining and washing them with a caustic solution that then collected in basins. Although the companies were only supposed to accept empty drums, some were not. The leakage, together with solid hazardous waste and up to 1,000 waste containers illegally buried on the property, contaminated the soil. The site was placed on the National Priorities List in 1999, and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection requested that the Environmental Protection Agency (the EPA) take the lead in completing studies of the contamination and in evaluating cleanup plans for the site.
The EPA released a plan to clean up the site in September 2005. Geoff Seibel, of de maximis, inc., is the project coordinator for the soil remedy; Mark Austin is the project manager. Primary responsibility for oversight of the cleanup belongs to the EPA. The project also involves Golder Associates, hired to design and engineer the cleanup, and the Potentially Responsible Party (PRP), consisting of the companies that have agreed to implement the soil remedy. This group was originally composed of forty companies; approximately thirty accepted to do the work and ten have funded it. Since the ten signed a consent decree, they are now legally obligated to provide all the needed funds toward the project’s completion. Some of the money that the companies have contributed is escrowed.
Representatives of the PRP met with Carrie Sargeant, the Heart of Camden Environment Director, in March 2008. The EPA approved the work plan for the site in October. It should be noted that the superfund site just on the other side of Broadway is not part of the Martin Aaron property and is not included in this cleanup. The DEP claims it will handle it at some other time.
History of the Martin Aaron Site
Initially a marshland, the area was filled with historic fill sometime in the early nineteenth century to bring it up to grade for industrial-purpose building. By 1891, three interrelated industries were situated there: the Castle Kid Company tannery, a shoe maker, and a slaughter house and meat packing company called Hills Brothers. These industries used arsenic to kill rats, and leather was treated in an arsenic-based solution to remove the hair. A Sanborn Map from 1906 – a map made for insurance purposes – shows the Hills Brothers, along with a significantly expanded tannery operation and the beginnings of some residential properties. According to a 1926 Sanborn Map, the Castle Kid Company was still there, together with a new scrap metal yard and PD Hughes meat packers to the south. By 1950, though, the tannery was gone (it went bankrupt), and while a meat processing and packaging company remained, two new companies, Kimble Glass and American Chain and Cable, had moved onto the property. By 1982, Dietz and Watson, the deli meat producer, had bought the meat processing plant and Martin Aaron Inc. was present. A 1994 Sanborn Map shows Comarco, Martin Aaron, Ponte Equities, and a bakery. Although the DEP cited Martin Aaron repeatedly in the 1980s and 1990s for discharges of hazardous substances, it was allowed to continue operations until it went out of business in 1998.
EPA Soil Remedy Plan
Step 1: Demolition and removal of two collapsing buildings on the site: they are safety hazards.
Step 2: Sample the soil for contaminants. It is already known that the soil contains 300 parts of arsenic per million (ppm) and volatile organic compounds or VOCs, chemicals that can get into the air through evaporation, as well as semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), metals, pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). A layer of tannery sludge was recently discovered. The depth of the contamination seems to vary; in some areas it seems only 2-3 feet; but in others it may have sunk to the water table at 12-13 feet. If the contamination does descend to that depth, it would have spread out from there, though probably not far. Although ground water has a natural propensity to clean itself, it is still necessary to check for contamination. After the impacted soil is removed, there will be continued monitoring of the water.
Step 3: Use the data collected in Step 2, and other information, to prepare a remedial design for cleaning up the soil.
Step 4: Soil removal and off-site disposal in a location approved by the EPA for soil with those particular contaminants; different disposal sites are licensed to receive different types of contaminated soil. The contaminated area will then be covered with a layer of clean soil or, depending on what the data indicate, stabilized by mixing in cement compounds. Ground water will be pumped to the surface, cleaned, and discharged into the sewer system.
Steps 1-3 will occur over the next fourteen months. The EPA will hold a public information action before remediation (Step 4) begins, a step that will probably last several months. For all steps, the site will be fenced and a security guard will be at the gates during work hours. While equipment such as backhoes will make some noise, the work will be done in stages to reduce noise. Dust levels will be monitored with the area being sprayed periodically with water to prevent fugitive dust from leaving the property. Diesel trucks carrying soil will be routed north on Broadway, and all trucks will be covered with tarps and inspected before leaving the site. There is no expectation of a need to close streets, though the sidewalk on Sixth Street may be blocked for a short time. There will be no utility interruptions. As work moves closer to the actual clean up, additional information will be provided.
When the cleanup is done, the area may be capped with blacktop. No plans have yet been made for the end use of the area, but the cleanup will be sufficient for “light industrial” use – not housing, as per a City of Camden decision reached without community input, but possibly commercial use such as a supermarket.
IV. Other Notable Sources of Pollution in South Camden/font>
Art Metalcraft Plating Company (529 S. 2nd Street), an electroplating steel and brass operation that opened in 1949 and emits trivalent chromium, cyanide, zinc, cadmium, and lead into the sewer system and hydrogen cyanide, soluble nickel and zinc into the air.
State Metal Industries (941 S. 2nd Street), an aluminum smelter and processor that uses scrap aluminum from area scrap dealers. It emits fine particulates, VOCs, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, metals, PCBs, and ammonia and produces hazardous waste from dust, waste oil, and equipment. According to the “Environmental Justice for All” website, the DEP cited it in 2002 and 1992 for exceeding emission limits and, in the Air Toxic Study, indicated its contribution to the high levels of particulates, nickel, and dioxin.
PSE&G (2nd Street and Spruce), an electric power generation plant that uses liquefied petroleum gas and emits fine particulates and VOCs into the air.
Camcore (260 Chestnut Street), an aluminum smelting plant that emits fine particulate, chlorine, chromium, metals, ethylene, and toluene into the air.
Central Metals (1054 S. 2nd Street), a metal processing company.
State Metal Industries (941 S. 2nd Street), an aluminum smelter and processor that emits fine particulates, VOCs, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, metals, PCBs, and ammonia, and generates hazardous waste from dust, waste oil, and equipment. It was cited by the DEP in 2002 and in 1992 for exceeding its permitted emission limits.
R. Fanelle’s (Ferry Avenue), two facilities for car crushing and scrap metal recycling.
National Paper Recycling (1537 Ferry Ave.), which recycles cardboard, paper, and plastic.
V. Air Quality in Waterfront South (Helene Pierson)
Camden County ranks in the top twenty counties in the US for poor air quality. It has the second worst air of all counties in New Jersey, ranking only after Newark. Waterfront South has been over studied relative to other parts of the county; studies of its air quality are so numerous that they constitute an industry in itself. In a number of cases, they were poorly conducted, resulting in inadequate or unreliable data. For example, Department of Health statistics show that while Waterfront South has very high rates of asthma and cancer, similar statistics apply to all of Camden City; the rates in Waterfront South are no higher than in other Camden neighborhoods. The only practical focus of efforts to address this situation, therefore, must be to improve conditions for local residents.
There have been improvements in the air quality over the last few years, and the neighborhood now regularly has good days, thanks in part to the board of the CCMUA. More advances may be possible in the near future with the introduction there of recently developed technology. The plant will soon install a sludge drying system that will help further reduce smell, and it is working to monitor and restrict trucks that come and go without tarps and employees who fail to close doors. The monitor at the CCMUA station, which gives hourly readings, is often in the green zone; when it is in the red, this is sometimes a measure of the poor quality of the air in a wider region because of low ozone or another factor. It is also important to recognize that there are factors besides air quality behind some of the problems experienced by local residents. One is the significant level of smoking. Tobacco users in Camden do not simply add ‘A’ to ‘B’; the impact of smoking combined with the air they breathe is exponential.
Nonetheless, continued efforts to reduce air pollution are essential. The bad smell of the air, still too frequent, remains a major quality of life concern, and the level of PM 2.5 (particulate matter – suspended particles with diameters of 2.5 micrometers or less) remains one of the highest in New Jersey. Under the federal Clean Air Act, the EPA has set maximum levels of certain chemicals for air to be safe to breathe, but Camden County residents are exposed to air toxics at a level 2,200 times higher than this standard. The county has a cancer risk from these pollutants equal to approximately half the rest of South Jersey (Atlantic County, Ocean and Cumberland Counties) combined. Quite apart from factors like smoking or genetics, the EPA estimates, a little over 1,100 residents of Camden County will develop cancer if exposed to current levels of air toxins. The pollution also aggravates pediatric asthma; in 1998, 7,468 cases of pediatric asthma and 22,432 cases of adults with asthma were reported in the county, along with 16,087 residents from chronic bronchitis and 5,244 with emphysema.
Causes of air pollution include the plume blown in from Philadelphia and the industries within South Camden listed above, in particular, the G-P Gypsum plant, the car crushing and scrap industries, and State Metal Industries. Another contributor are the approximately 6000 vacant lots in Camden; vacancies lead to mold, while also encouraging the presence of rats. Still another factor are the cars and trucks passing along 676. But the worst source of air pollution is PM 2.5, and it is now recognized that in Waterfront South this comes primarily from diesel fumes. Although the ships coming into the terminals are partly to blame, the trucks are the most immediate cause. The four traffic lights within the neighborhood along South Broadway mean that most trucks are required to stop at least once when passing through, and studies have shown that the fumes as they idle are especially dangerous.
Many experts and policy advocates are working on the problem, including Carrie Sargeant, the Heart of Camden, and South Camden Citizens in Action, a group started by Heart of Camden. If an incident of bad air smell occurs, it is now possible to email or phone the CCMUA or the DEP, and then, usually, the matter is taken care of quickly. A $1 million grant a few years ago made it possible to hire Sargeant and undertake remedial projects in the neighborhood. Some new plantings of green spaces are planned for next year using some of these funds, and this will help further ameliorate the air quality.
Decades ago, streets in South Camden opened up to the waterfront, with ferries from there to Philadelphia – a wonderful image to keep in mind as we continue the fight against these injustices.
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"Ecology should be understood, not as a
technical procedure of resource management, but an art, a new paradigm of the relationship
of human beings to earth and nature…Otherwise earth will go on, but without us,
without human beings." Leonard
Boff
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Conclusion
It is clear
from the foregoing that Camden City, and particularly the neighborhood of
Waterfront South, has been the victim of incredibly poor planning on the part
of those who took an oath to serve its residents. There may be varied reasons for the poor planning, and perhaps,
at the time, those reasons may have seemed plausible. What is clear now, in retrospect, if not at the time, is that the
placement of such environmentally devastating industries in a residential area
is unacceptable. What is more, it is
unacceptable that government continues to drag its feet, on local, state and
federal levels to meet the obvious injustice of past planning decisions with
actions that redress that injustice.
From the
perspective of the gospel, it is clear that the water, air and land of
Waterfront South, as well as the people who have lived in Waterfront South for
generations, are precisely those with whom the disciple of Jesus must find him
or her self. The Psalmist describes the
ideal environment:
The mission of the Center for Transformation is motivated by the
environmentally distressed context in which it is situated. It is motivated by the gospel imperative to
work for justice, for the environmental and for those who depend on that
environment. In the face of injustice,
only indifference and a hard heart can turn away. Christians are called, in collaboration with all those of good
will, to witness to a different way to relate to the environment, a different
way of being in relationship with human beings, and in so doing, initiating
healing, indeed, transformation, of the earth so battered in Waterfront South,
and to our neighbors who deserve all that life has to offer. Our goal is to reach the delight of the
psalmist:
"Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to
the LORD, all the earth . . . Let the heavens
rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that
is in it; let the fields be
jubilant, and everything in them.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy." (Psalm
96:1, 11-12)
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