BY PAUL HUMMEL
CORRESPONDENT
HILLSDALE, N.J. —— Borough officials are up in arms over Bergen County’s delay in its actions to formulate a comprehensive county waste management plan that includes whether the garbage transfer station in the borough should be operational or not.
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Such a delay may enable the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to rule to allow the Waste Management transfer station to begin operations shortly after being closed for almost four years.
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In a letter to residents on Hillsdale’s website, Mayor John Ruocco detailed the previous hearings on the matter as well as his request to the county to comply with an unprecedented request from the NJDEP on July 5 for information from the county whether there was still a need for the Hillsdale transfer station to be included in the county’s solid waste management plan.
In the letter, the mayor stated that County Executive Jim Tedesco referred the matter to the Bergen County Utilities Authority (BCUA) and that Hillsdale, on July 23, asked that the transfer station be deleted from Bergen County’s waste management plan.
On Sept. 20, the BCUA stated it would review the situation, but did not state when a decision would be forthcoming.
Fearful that the waste transfer facility in downtown Hillsdale may be reopened, the mayor urged residents to lobby state environmental officials to prevent ‘a terrible outcome for Hillsdale.’
On Nov. 15, Hillsdale officials met with representatives of the NJDEP and were informed that since Bergen County had not specified a completion date for its review, the NJDEP might choose to renew the permit anyway.
“This would be a terrible outcome for Hillsdale as it would not properly recognize the serious harm that such action would have on our residents,” Ruocco wrote in the letter. “Furthermore, it squanders the county’s opportunity, provided for in state regulation, to remove the Hillsdale transfer station from the county’s solid waste management plan since it has not been in operation for almost four years.”
Ruocco also asked residents to email a form letter to the NJDEP asking them not to proceed on any ruling without the county’s input, as well as emailing Tedesco and Executive Director of the BCUA Robert Laux requesting that the Hillsdale transfer station be excluded from any county waste management plan.
In the form letter to the NJDEP, Tedesco and Laux, part of which was composed by former Mayor Doug Frank, it stated that “the facility has been vacant for almost four years and poses an environmental, safety and economic threat to the residents. Its application was filed late, and relied on state environmental and traffic studies almost 20 years old to justify its renewal.”
“Its presence in the heart of Hillsdale’s downtown area, surrounded by residential homes, runs contrary to federal environmental guidelines.”