Officials seize Camden property with towering dirt pile called symbol of environmental injustice

Local, county, and state officials cut the bolts Monday that locked a metal gate on Chestnut Street in Camden and stepped foot for the first time on a lot containing a dirt pile that looms about 45 feet high, towering over a home and dominating a local landscape.

The officials effectively seized control of the contaminated land on two sides of the street — an eyesore neighbors had complained about for years — even though foreclosure proceedings are still ongoing.

They announced during a news conference Monday that they will begin assessing the land to figure out how many tons of material has to be tested for contamination and removed. City officials have been trying to figure out how to clear the land and clean the site for at least a year, and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has an ongoing lawsuit against the property’s owner.

» READ MORE: Camden man wants to know why a 40-foot-high dirt dump continues next to his home

“The bottom line ... is Camden is not a dumping ground,” Mayor Victor Carstarphen said. “This situation is simply unacceptable. I don’t care where you live at. This should not be tolerated in any community.”

Kandyce Perry, director of the DEP’s Office of Environmental Justice, called the newly announced steps to remove the pile as helping correct “historic patterns of injustice.”

The pile of fill and excavation waste is just yards from a vacant home on the 600 block of Chestnut Street owned by city resident Carlton Soudan. Now covered with weeds, it pokes high above the intersection at Seventh and Chestnut Streets — a symbol officials say of environmental injustice. Other piles of debris, including tires and broken concrete, also cover the land. Some of the waste was dumped on city property.

The land had been used for industrial purposes for 100 years. But dumping started at the site in 2013 under a previous owner and then ramped up in 2019 under another. The city refers to it as an illegal dump with fill that tested positive for toxins and includes construction and demolition debris and tires, and “significant amounts of debris have migrated to neighboring properties.”

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection sued one former owner and longtime operator of the site, S. Yaffa & Sons Inc., last year, saying the company “unlawfully imported and stockpiled solid waste on their Camden property, including contaminated fill material, construction and demolition debris, and waste tires” and resisted taking action after receiving numerous violation notices and an order to stop.

The suit noted that Camden, with a “significant low-income and minority population,” has “been disproportionately exposed to high-polluting facilities and to the resultant threats of high levels of air, water, and soil pollution, and accompanying potential for increased public health impacts.”

The DEP asked the court to order a cleanup in July against S. Yaffa & Sons. But owner Charles Yaffa had died, and the property was sold in 2019 to Weyhill Realty Holdings LLC. Weyhill is owned by Anthony Franchi, who could not immediately be reached for comment.

Franchi said in a previous interview that he bought the property assuming it would have some “legacy issues that would have been addressed over time.” He planned to use the site to store trucks, equipment, and material generated from his earthmoving business. He eventually hoped to develop the site into another use.

However, he said the city shut down his operations in April 2021, citing lack of a mercantile license he didn’t know he needed. So he wasn’t able to remove the excavated material he put there, and believed issues could have been resolved through conversations with city officials.

Regardless, officials said Monday that the dirt pile grew out of control and that they needed to step in. No one can say with accuracy how high the peak of the pile rises since officials had not been on the site until Monday. Previous estimates of up to 45 feet were made using telephone poles as a gauge.

The city entered into an agreement with multiple agencies in July essentially authorizing action on the private land and initiating foreclosure proceedings.

Carstarphen, the mayor, said the assessment of the site by Montrose Environmental would begin immediately and last through November. He expects that the Camden Redevelopment Agency will have a deal with a contractor by December to remove the soil.

He expects the contractors could remove piles illegally dumped on a small city-owned lot by June 2023. Excavation of the largest piles on private property would begin sometime during the summer.