A historical past of environmental violations
EMR runs a steel recycling complicated alongside the Delaware River waterfront in South Camden, the place the fireplace came about, in addition to a salvaged auto parts store and a scrapyard that buys cars and appliances along I-676 within the metropolis.
State environmental officers have cited EMR’s Waterfront South websites for a number of violations lately, in line with New Jersey Division of Environmental Safety enforcement data.
These violations included emitting smoke and air pollution that would have posed a “potential menace” to public well being, working front-end loaders, claw grabbers and industrial magnets with out permits, permitting vehicles to idle and in any other case failing to function gear in keeping with permits.
In 2021, the New Jersey Division of Environmental Safety charged EMR a penalty of $9,500 for 2 fires that occurred in 2020 and 2021 on the firm’s Kaighn Avenue facility, the place it shops large piles of auto-shredding waste known as “fluff.” The company later settled the matter with EMR, accepting a decrease penalty of $7,600.
“You don’t essentially need to reside proper subsequent to [EMR], the identical means you wouldn’t need to reside subsequent to a landfill,” stated Benjamin Saracco, a volunteer with Camden for Clear Air who lives a number of miles away from the power in Camden’s Cooper Grant neighborhood.
Saracco stated even at his dwelling in North Camden, relying on the wind route, it’s generally attainable to scent a “candy burning plastic odor” coming from the power. The closest properties to EMR’s Waterfront South services are a lot nearer — simply hundreds of ft away.
Camden, a predominantly Black and Latino, working-class metropolis, is taken into account an overburdened community by the New Jersey Division of Environmental Safety. It is usually dwelling to a trash incinerator that has been a target of advocates working for clean air.
