JACKSON – An engineer representing an applicant that is seeking permission to recycle used truck and trailer parts on a property on Wright-Debow Road in Jackson testified that fluids drained from vehicles will be handled in an environmentally conscious manner.
A and A Truck Parts Inc. is seeking a use variance from the Jackson Zoning Board of Adjustment to operate a recycling center for used truck and trailer parts. Recycling is not a permitted use in the Commercial Office/Light Industrial zone on Wright-Debow Road.
The company was represented by attorney Ray Shea and engineer Ian Borden during a Feb. 21 zoning board meeting.
Borden began his testimony that evening by answering questions board members and residents had asked during a previous meeting. One issue concerned the manner in which fluids will be drained from trucks and other equipment.
He said the trucks and equipment will be brought into a building housing large tanks that will be used hold gasoline, diesel fuel, oil and antifreeze that is removed from the vehicles and equipment.
Borden said that “to protect the environment,” the tanks will be placed on top of an impermeable concrete base inside a containment structure.
“The volume of the containment structure would be equal to or greater than the volume of the tanks themselves, so if in fact all the tanks were to leak at once, which of course is highly improbable, the containment area is sufficient to store all that material until it is pumped out and removed without spilling onto the ground,” Borden said.
He said the proposed facility would not be permitted to recycle the gasoline, diesel fuel, oil and antifreeze.
The board’s chairman, Steve Costanzo, asked Borden to explain the difference between a recycling center and a junkyard.
“A junkyard does not require any of these rules. A junkyard does not require a Class A recycling license and a junkyard does not require (the same precautions) for storm water discharge,” he said.
Borden explained that vehicles are not recycled at a junkyard; at a junkyard, vehicles are stored and their parts are sold.
Shea said the purpose of obtaining a Class A recycling license from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is to distinguish a recycling center from a traditional junkyard.
The board’s vice chairman, Sheldon Hofstein, described the definition of a junkyard in Jackson’s municipal code as “very broad.”
“It is very broad, but it does state that it includes automobile wrecking yards, salvage yards or recycling centers, so I think that was left hanging out there that recycling is included,” Hofstein said.
Shea said unfortunately, there is no definition of a recycling center in the municipal code.
Borden said that is why the licensing from the DEP distinguishes the proposed recycling facility from a junkyard. He said the operators of many facilities use the term junkyard on purpose to avoid environmental regulations.
During public comment, resident Val Tudor thanked the applicant’s professionals for answering questions she asked at a previous meeting.
Tudor asked how long trucks and other vehicles will remain outside the building before they are brought inside and worked on.
“Because out on the property, if I understood correctly, it is all gravel. Inside the building there is cement so the (fluids) cannot seep into our aquifer, but out on the property it is gravel and they can definitely (leak) if they are sitting out there (and) all these (fluids) that have not been removed can seep into our aquifer,” Tudor said.
Tudor was told that issue will be addressed at a future meeting.
Resident Jill Palmer said, “In addition to the trucks, we are going to have (employees) coming and going on our street and that will be even more traffic. We have a lot of little kids on our street and these trucks coming in and out and these cars flying up and down at 100 mph, one little kid gets killed, is it worth it? Is it really worth it?”
Palmer said she is also concerned about noise pollution that may be produced by the proposed recycling operation.
The A and A Truck Parts application was carried to the board’s April 18 meeting.
