This article appeared on tworivertimes.com
TINTON FALLS – Residents living near the landfill at the Monmouth County Reclamation Center (MCRC) were furious about the return of a stench that was supposedly remediated in 2018. Several are now urging officials to close down the facility permanently to resolve the issue.
“We’re trying to put 20 pounds in a 10-pound bag,” resident Ryan Mickendrow said during the Jan. 16 borough council meeting attended by county officials and a room full of disgruntled residents.
Mickendrow noted that the landfill, opened in 1976, is being overused. He suggested the county close the landfill and reclaim it. “We adopt a new solid waste plan for the county and move on,” he said. He proposed a “bail and rail” program that uses trains to haul away solid waste, even if taxes go up “a couple hundred dollars.”
Officials from Waste Management of New Jersey Inc., contracted by the county to operate and manage the landfill since 2019, have been working to abate odors coming from the landfill. Scott Perin, area director of disposal operations for Waste Management, began with an apology to the residents before giving a presentation about the current odor situation. “We’re extremely frustrated with where the performance of the site is today and we just want everybody to know that we’re working hard with the county to make sure we address those issues going forward,” said Perin.
He attributed the recent surge in odor to “hard, heavy, fast” rainfall since September. “About 50% of the rainfall from last year came in that last hundred-day period,” Perin said. The heavy rains have also caused erosion on the side slopes of the site which allows more gas to escape or water to infiltrate. Very few dry periods in between the rains accelerated decomposition, leading to increased gas production and operational challenges at the landfill.
Perin discussed the immediate and long-term plans to reduce the odor.
The facility immediately deployed more units of NeutrOlene, a chemical odor suppressant. The Reclamation Center has two gas-to-energy facilities to collect methane, reducing landfill emissions while creating reusable energy. The plan to install additional horizontal gas-collecting devices at select elevations is almost 80% complete. Officials have also increased the vacuum on the gas collection systems to help minimize odors and replenished some of the eroded soil cover. There are also plans to install a 15 to 20- acre rain tarp to promote stormwater runoff and provide a seal to capture more landfill gas at the surface.
Similar odor problems in 2018 were attributed to methane, landfill leaching, a large amount of rain and a repair project at the landfill where the facility’s gas collection system was disconnected. In 2019, the county hired Waste Management of New Jersey Inc. to operate and maintain the landfill located on 900 sprawling acres in the middle of Tinton Falls at Asbury Avenue and Shafto Road. The landfill has been collecting over 400,000 tons of total waste annually from 53 towns in Monmouth County. The Household Hazardous Waste Facility is located adjacent to the Reclamation Center and offers solid waste disposal facilities for residents.
Monmouth County Commissioner Director Thomas Arnone stood before a room full of infuriated residents at the Jan. 16 meeting in Tinton Falls and assured them the situation would be remediated immediately.
Since Jan. 1, the Monmouth County Health Department has received 125 odor complaints, although not all those are landfill related.
The odor has been affecting residents and businesses alike. Janet Porter, who manages the Jersey Shore Premium Outlets located near the landfill, frequently gets asked why the mall “smells so bad,” she said. Nearly half a million people came to visit the mall in November and December last year and she said, “At least half of those shoppers” complained about the foul odor. The outlet mall has 125 tenants who “don’t realize it’s not my sewer issue. It’s not my plumbing issue. It’s the town issue,” Porter said. The stink “affects my mall and my reputation and I can’t afford to have folks shop elsewhere.”
Residents are also concerned about possible health impacts. Gina Gerard complained about sinus, gastro and stomach problems “getting progressively worse” due to the odor she could smell as far away as Farmingdale. “This smell is ridiculous. There’s no way it’s not hurting us. Absolutely no way it’s not hurting us,” Gerard said. “That dump was supposed to close. There’s no good reason that it’s still open.”
Rich Klein has lived in a neighborhood near the MCRC for 21 years. He was upset that he can’t have his friends – or his 80-year-old mother with a lung condition – visit his house because the smell gets worse after 5 p.m. “This is unacceptable. This has got to stop,” Klein said. “This reclamation site was supposed to be closed more than 10 years ago. It was to be capped, done, finished.”
According to information on the MCRC website, the county pays the borough of Tinton Falls nearly $2.4 million for being the host community of the regional landfill and over $5 million has been spent to date on landfill gas controls. The county plans to spend another $20 million to mitigate the odors.
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