An award-winning metal-recycling program at a landfill in Gloucester County, NJ, has been shut down while county and state officials haggle over who's responsible for obtaining a permit for the operation.
Meanwhile, hundreds of tons of potentially recyclable soup cans, metal hangers and utensils are being dumped into the crowded landfill.
"The authority wants to encourage recycling in any way possible," said Joe McGovern, an attorney for the Gloucester County Improvement Authority, which operates the 54-acre landfill. "I think everyone's in agreement that it's a good operation."
On Feb. 7, county officials halted the privately run recycling program, the first of its kind in New Jersey, after learning it had operated for more than three years without the required state permit. The deficiency was discovered during a routine inspection of the Gloucester County Solid Waste Complex by the state Department of Environmental Protection, a spokesman said.
One week later, the state cited the authority for failure to obtain the permit. The taxpayer-funded authority, which is a semiautonomous county agency, could face a fine of $25,000 for every day the recycling program operated without a permit.
The private company running the operation was responsible for seeking the permit, and the authority later this week plans to appeal its violation notice to the DEP, said McGovern, an attorney with the law firm Parker McKay in Marlton.
"This operation was never part of the landfill," he said.
In 2001, the state granted a one-year permit to Innovative Recovery Products LLC of Camden to run a metal-recycling operation at the landfill. Later that year, the program won an award for "forward thinking" from the New Jersey Association of Environmental Authorities.
The company uses a mobile magnetic machine placed on top of the landfill to pull metal items from incinerated ash that is trucked there. The salvaged metal is then sold to steel makers.
As much as 20 percent of the 300,000 tons of incinerated trash trucked to the landfill annually is recycled using the system, company officials said.
Innovative Recovery Products agreed to share any profits from the operation with the authority.
The improvement authority was listed on the initial permit application only as the operator of the host facility, McGovern said.
The permit was granted so the operation could be used for research and demonstration, said Fred Mumford, a spokesman for the DEP.
After that permit expired in January 2002, Innovative Recovery Products filed a preliminary application for a permanent recycling operation at the landfill. That application was denied because state regulations require that such operations be conducted inside a building to contain nuisances such as dust, noise and odors.
The company did not respond to a subsequent letter regarding the permit process, according to the violation notice.
"My client had followed up with the DEP after that letter was issued, and it was my client's impression there was going to be some discussion over the future permitting of the facility and we could continue operating while that was worked out," said the company's attorney, Bruce S. Katcher of Cherry Hill. "We are cooperating with the authority in working this out."
But the program continued to operate until last month.
Katcher said he doesn't believe the recycling program falls under state guidelines requiring that it operate in an enclosed facility.
Mumford said his agency is setting up a meeting with the improvement authority to try to resolve the permit dispute. No date has been set.
"We're looking for the authority to properly (obtain a) permit (for) that activity at the landfill," said Mumford. "As soon as that happens, the recycling operations can begin again."