HOWELL – Municipal officials are making it clear Howell will not support a company’s proposal to establish a solid waste transfer station at Route 547 and Randolph Road.
Resource Engineering has proposed establishing a facility that would accept 1,500 tons per day of bulky cleanup debris and bulky construction debris for sorting, removal of recyclable materials and subsequent transfer to an out-of-state facility for final disposal. The firm has indicated that as many as 200 trucks per day, Monday through Saturday, may enter and leave the facility.
The proposal is awaiting consideration by the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders.
In their most recent communication with the freeholders on Feb. 21, Howell officials sent a letter to Freeholder Director Thomas A. Arnone and the freeholders opposing the facility within the township’s borders. The letter was signed by Mayor Theresa Berger, Deputy Mayor Robert Nicastro and the Township Council – Pauline Smith, Evelyn O’Donnell and Robert Walsh.
“As you are undoubtedly aware, numerous residents attended a recent township meeting and a meeting of the (Monmouth County) Solid Waste Advisory Council to voice their opposition to this application. Concerns included the lack of notice and public participation, physical disturbance to the environmentally sensitive site as a result of proposed construction, vastly increased truck traffic, and the unintentional inclusion of potentially unauthorized types of solid and hazardous waste,” the municipal officials wrote.
The officials said they object to any action being taken by the freeholders until Howell’s independently retained professionals have had an opportunity to “review and opine as to all the traffic and other studies relating” to the application.
The letter acknowledges concerns expressed by representatives of the Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority in neighboring Brick Township and their opposition to the transfer station, stating, “There has been little information to ensure that leaching of on-site waste will not impact the ground water or potable wells.”
The letter states, “it is questionable whether the expanded facility is even necessary.”
“As you are undoubtedly aware, the freeholders posses a license to operate the Monmouth County Reclamation Center. That facility is licensed to accept (various types of waste) for disposal at the landfill, and (other types of waste) at the transfer station/materials recovery facility,” Howell officials wrote.
The county’s application for the reclamation center’s Phase IV expansion stated that “the expansion is necessary to meet the continued solid waste disposal needs of the county’s 53 municipalities,” according to Howell’s letter to the freeholders.
“Because the freeholders are already willing and prepared to provide county-wide solid waste management services through the reclamation center, approval of the Resource Engineering application (on Randolph Road) would be contrary to the county’s goal,” the Howell officials wrote.
Finally, they said there is no indication the freeholders have determined the proposed amendment to the county’s solid waste plan would not violate a state law.
“In light of the increased traffic, the lack of necessity and the potential violation of (state law), the most prudent course is to either deny the (Resource Engineering) application, or demand additional detailed study that is subject to public scrutiny and comment,” Howell’s elected representatives wrote.
The council’s Feb. 21, 2018 letter to the freeholders represented a different viewpoint than what was expressed in a March 6, 2017 letter from Howell to the Monmouth County Solid Waste Advisory Council. Nicastro said there may have been a misinterpretation regarding the 2017 letter.
The 2017 letter stated, “As you (SWAC) know, Howell has had several communications with you regarding the proposed solid waste transfer station on Randolph Road. According to our records, you have received a list of standard requirements from Community Development and Land Use, Fire Bureau, Planning Board Engineer and outside professionals.
“Howell will offer its support for this project as long as the recommendations and requirements submitted to you by each of these professionals both in-house and outsourced are complied with.
“This includes the installation of a traffic signal at Route 547 and Randolph Road, the widening and curb installation of Randolph Road along the property frontage and engineering confirmation that Randolph Road can support the weight of proposed vehicles that will utilize this facility. We trust these issues along with everything else raised by our professionals will be addressed should this application be approved.”
The letter was signed by then Township Manager Jeff Mayfield on behalf of Howell’s governing body and professional staff.
The Resource Engineering application was reviewed and approved by SWAC in May 2017.
According to Nicastro, the township’s professionals reviewed the application for the solid waste transfer station like a site plan that would come before the Planning Board.
“There were a whole bunch of recommendations made to SWAC from the township, including widening of the road, the traffic, the buffer, just like you would see on any site plan approval,” he said.
Nicastro said the council supported the issues Howell’s professionals had identified in the site plan review.
“So how that translated from the (township manager) to (the Township Council indicating) we supported the application in the beginning, I think there was confusion and a mix-up, and that is why I think the governing body was very upset at the manager when he submitted that letter on our behalf,” he said. “There was a list of things we said needed to be taken into consideration for SWAC, that I know is what we were saying we supported, not the transfer station itself. We never supported this transfer station.”
Mayfield left his position as the township manager in September 2017.
Nicastro and Walsh attended a freeholders meeting in July and were prepared to speak about the transfer station, but the freeholders did not take up the issue. He said they planned to make clear that Howell officials were not supporting the transfer station, but were supporting what the township’s professionals had identified as issues to be addressed.
Freeholder John P. Curley addressed the issue in a Feb. 25, 2018, letter to residents and said there “is a move afoot” to place the solid waste transfer station in Howell, near residents, schools, parks and businesses.
“Those advancing the venture are no doubt aware that major tributaries lie beneath the community. These underground waterways feed our county reservoir, which could risk contamination,” Curley wrote, adding that he strongly opposes this “ill-conceived notion.”
He wrote, “Should we allow cross contamination of wells and sewers to affect towns? Do we risk poisoning the water our residents drink? Do we want a waste dump in an active community? Should we allow large trucks to bring solid waste to the town for storage until larger trucks ultimately move it out, all while destroying roads and infrastructure that were never designed for such traffic flow? Why should taxpayers face that repair expense? How can the Environmental Protection Agency be wrong in fostering policies that place sometimes toxic facilities in more remote rural areas, rather than in active communities?”
Curley, a Republican, is in the final year of his current term as a freeholder and has not been endorsed by the Republican Party as one of its candidates this year. He has said he may consider making a bid for re-election as an independent candidate.
