By Philip Sean Curran
TINTON FALLS – Some Monmouth County freeholders said this week that they are looking to municipal officials in Tinton Falls, home of the county landfill, to shoulder some of the responsibility for abating the odor coming from the facility on Asbury Avenue.
“I think we’re looking for them to step up and help be a part of the solution,” said Freeholder Gerry P. Scharfenberger. “I think we’re looking for them to be a partner, because it is within their jurisdiction.”
Earlier this year the county said the “recent odors” at the landfill were attributable to methane gas, landfill leachate seeps, a large amount of rain in 2018 and a repair project at the landfill where the facility’s gas collection system was disconnected. Officials have been working to address the problem, with freeholders voting earlier this year to authorize spending $7.55 million in projects at the landfill, known formally as the Monmouth County Reclamation Center.
As part of weekly updates he has been issuing by email, Thomas A. Arnone, freeholder director, wrote April 18 that the county intended to install an interim system to collect methane gas that comes from the decomposing garbage and then a permanent system that would take four to six weeks to complete and involve more than 17,000 linear feet of pipe.
“At the end of this stage, we will have installed the permanent gas collection system; the permanent leachate collection system as well as the new vacuum lines to continue to improve the collection of gas and control of the odors,” he wrote.
Freeholder Lillian G. Burry said it’s costing the county “big money” to correct the problem at the landfill.
“I think it would be a good, sound gesture on their part to agree to help defray some of the costs involved here,” she said of Tinton Falls. “I would like to see them more directly involved with defraying some of the expenses.”
She noted that the county pays the municipality a “substantial amount of money” for being the host community of the landfill. Last year that contribution was around $2.7 million.
“With that money, wouldn’t it make a lot of good sense to take a portion of that and either help defray the taxes of the residents, because they’re the ones being directly affected by this, or to reduce what the county is responsible for?” Burry asked.
She said freeholders historically have worked well with officials in Tinton Falls and that she saw no change in that relationship. The town and the county are negotiating a new host community agreement, as their old deal expired at the end of 2017.
Arnone, speaking at the April 18 freeholders meeting, suggested possibly structuring the Tinton Falls allocation to “best fit the residents that are affected by the landfill.” He did not elaborate.
As of Wednesday, 105 people have signed an online petition at change.org seeking, among other things, greater transparency about the new agreement between Tinton Falls and the county and a public comment hearing before the Tinton Falls governing body votes on the new host agreement for the reclamation center. The petition was started this week by a group that calls itself “MCCEHS.”
“Our homes and our neighborhoods play host to the MCRC (Monmouth County Reclamation Center),” the petition read in part. “It is our right to know what goes into the host agreement, not just a select few.”
One woman who signed, Barbara Maggs, wrote on the site that she was “tired being left in the dark and being lied to for years about the dump.”
The landfill, spanning some 900 acres, has been in use since 1976. Last year it received 398,730 tons of waste, according to the county.
Scharfenberger said the support he had in mind does not only have to be monetary, but could take other forms, like the county working with staff in the Tinton Falls public works department to share ideas, knowledge and expertise.
“And I understand it is our landfill,” Burry said. “But I think it’s reached a point where we need to work together. I think to consider us two separate entities is not serving anybody’s good.”
Tinton Falls Mayor Vito Perillo could not be reached for comment this week.
“We’re trying our best to do whatever we possibly can to remediate this problem,” Arnone said at last week’s freeholder meeting. “But there’s no excuse for it.”
Yet as the county faces this challenge, legal hurdles await. Some residents of Tinton Falls who have complained about the odor affecting their quality of life, plan to sue the county later this year, potentially seeking $233 million in damages. A torts claim notice was filed with the county in April.
“We’re required to give six months’ notice of the filing of a lawsuit,” said Kevin S. Riechelson, attorney for the residents. “I can’t assume what the county’s going to do. But assuming that nothing happens between now and…by the beginning of October, I anticipate that a lawsuit will be filed sometime in the beginning of October with the class representatives that we’ve selected.”
