Jersey Shore landfill and its trash stench may be expanding

For Ricky King-Luke, reminders that he lives close to a landfill arrive at a regular and foul pace.

In Absecon, for example, sea birds are always perched on his roof. He believes that the free pizza crusts and Doritos next door are what draw the flocks. Bird droppings on cars and footpaths are inevitable.

The 61-year-old believes the toxins coming from the plant are the cause of his frequent sleeplessness, migraines, and coughing fits. It smells like a rotten egg and is difficult to get rid of.

Because we never know when the scents would take over and ruin a gathering, we are unable to have guests in our house. King-Luke, who has been a resident since 2017, discussed one of the more frequent grievances made against the Egg Harbor Township landfill with NJ Advance Media on Thursday.

He claimed that the Atlantic County Utilities Authority dump was lowering his quality of life.

King-Luke resides in the housing complex for seniors, Gatherings at Bel Aire Lakes. He is among a number of locals who have sued the county to prevent waste from being processed at the dump, to force additional inquiry into odor issues, and to impose additional fines on the site for infractions.

According to the county, the case is still pending discussions to add 5 acres to the 102-acre dump, which would prolong its lifespan until 2037 or 2038. The facility is currently scheduled to manage garbage through 2029 at the latest. The Solid Waste Advisory Committee of Atlantic County, the county board of commissioners, and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection would all need to authorize any future expansions.

According to representatives of the Atlantic County Utilities Authority, the facility responsibly handles waste considering its close proximity to households and wildlife, has made steps to address odor concerns, and offers an essential service to around 270,000 people in the area.

According to Matthew DeNafo, president of the Atlantic County Utilities Authority, “you’re not going to find any landfill site with a clean history, but to be grossly neglecting something… is far from the truth of what we do.” You can see from our site and what we stand for in terms of innovation and trying to keep the environment clean.

Trash from New Jersey must go somewhere.

Nevertheless, given its size and density, the state still struggles with where and how to handle trash in light of variables like frequency and total cost. Not to mention the odor. In the case of Egg Harbor, officials from Atlantic County point out that the garbage will still need to be trucked somewhere else if the landfill is converted back to its previous use as a transfer station. Transporting the county’s garbage to a Cape May facility (as some have suggested) has its own expenses, and sending it out of state can be difficult or environmentally hazardous.

On Tuesday, January 28, 2025, Matt DeNafo, President of the Atlantic County Utilities Authority, takes a tour of the yard waste portion of the Authority’s landfill in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey.Jim Lowney | For Advance Media in New Jersey

Dumpster diving (for data)

According to data given to NJ Advance Media through an Open Public Records Act request, more than 1.3 million tons of the 5.4 million tons of waste handled in New Jersey in 2021 (the most recent year available) ended up in Pennsylvania, and another 2.8 million tons ending up in Ohio.

Here in the Garden State, some of the garbage remained. As of this past December, over 8.4 million tons of solid garbage has been deposited on-site in Atlantic County, namely, since the Egg Harbor Township facility debuted in the 1990s.

There are repercussions for that.

An NJ Advance Media analysis of public records shows that since 2014, the landfill has accrued over $237,000 in state fines for various operational and environmental infractions.

In its citations, the NJDEP detailed everything from trash and rotten egg-like smells released outdoors that pollute the air to excessive windblown litter that is not properly covered.

During the same time period, the Monmouth County landfill, which is comparable in size, incurred state fines of around $160,000.

According to DeNafo, we are dealing with more than 30 years’ worth of waste that is more than 100 feet deep and 102 acres old. We deal with the societal necessity of human waste that has an odor as a result. Additionally, you will almost certainly smell something if you visit a landfill or pass by another landfill.

According to the head of the authority, the odor problem was made worse by the heavy rains that blocked the gas collecting system in January of last year. To mitigate those issues, the authority has worked.Additionally, he stated that the ACUA has spent more than $16 million on the site and gas collection, with the use of blowers and wells.

Problems arise when it rains a lot. Problems arise from temperature inversions. After giving a tour of the facility, DeNafo stated that problems are caused by mechanical breakdowns in the field. Because of the nature of our work, any landfill in New Jersey that is currently in operation will have some sort of history of a litter violation, a leachate violation, or an odor complaint.

According to DeNafo, odor-related problems are uncommon, and ACUA tries to be a good neighbor to Absecon and other adjacent residents.

The state received the following odor complaints from the landfill:

The lead lawyer for the plaintiffs in the landfill action, Peter J. Fontaine, gave NJ Advance Media court records pertaining to the case on Thursday.

Among these, Fontaine said that a former CDC division director and board-certified toxicologist came to the conclusion that a number of residents’ health concerns were legitimate.

We are aware that the landfill is having an adverse effect on people’s health because there is a direct correlation between acute and long-term health effects and exposure to hydrogen sulfide at the levels recorded in the Bel Aire Lakes community, Fontaine stated in an email.

He said that these effects included widespread anxiety, irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, and decreased lung function.

According to officials at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority, the landfill is getting better at handling odor issues. They cited the installation of more gas collection infrastructure, which resulted in a significant decrease in complaints between the winter of 2023 and the spring of 2024.

Other concerns, including birds

According to the Atlantic County Utilities Authority, the Absecon development, which began construction in 2006, has been the primary cause of the opposition to the landfill extension. But Sen. Vincent Polistina (R-District 2) said other citizens and government officials have also expressed concerns.

Indeed, Polistina told NJ Advance Media that a large number of residents in the neighborhoods around the dump have opposed any growth.

Although the senator and county commissioners suggested dissolving the authority and privatizing the Egg Harbor Township facility in the fall, the senator from Atlantic County has since changed his mind.

“I don’t expect there to be conversations regarding privatization as long as ACUA does their job,” Polistina stated on Friday.

Polistina added that he was eager to meet with the ACUA but had not yet seen a planned expansion plan.

Birds are another issue brought up in the county. Sara Verrillo a spokeswoman for the utilities authority said a team at the facility buries waste that doesn t attract birds, such as bulk waste and construction waste, during the day and saves the rest for when it s dark.

Our landfill operation buries municipal waste at night, which is likely to contain food waste or other material that would attract birds to the area, Verrillo said, noting ACUA has a bird biologist on staff.

Those, and other steps, officials at the authority noted, are especially important due to the facility s proximity to an airport and worries over bird strikes.

According to county authority authorities, the 102-acre Egg Harbor Township landfill might gain an extra 5 acres if it is enlarged. However, a lawsuit has been launched by residents of the Bel Aire Lakes subdivision (shown with a red pin) contesting the facility’s expansion plans. The area adjacent to the parkway, where the facility might be expanded, is indicated by a yellow arrow.An altered image from a Google Map

Laura Pfrommer, mayor of Egg Harbor Township and on the ACUA board, said that besides helping to manage trash the facility provides monetary benefits to the town.

As the host community, we get a host community benefit, Pfrommer said on the phone of the roughly $3 million provided to the town annually for having a landfill in the first place. That was agreed upon when they built it and other towns get or save money every year as well from having the facility there, county spokespeople said.

Pfrommer was blunt about the fact many did not initially want a landfill placed in town. However, she shared, the financial help to Egg Harbor Township s tax rates are significant.

Only time will tell if attempts locally to stymie an expansion or operations will happen. Over the last two decades, the facility has expanded at least half a dozen times (the Monmouth Countyfacility is trying to do the same).

Regarding the Egg Harbor lawsuit, the case is in the discovery phase now and expected to advance come spring.

A temporary capped part of the Atlantic County Utilities Authority landfill in Egg Harbor Township, N.J. on Tuesday, January 28, 2025.Jim Lowney | For Advance Media in New Jersey

Stories by

Steven Rodas

• N.J. kills bid for more offshore wind plans, says now s not the right time

• Smelly, repeatedly fined Jersey Shore landfill may be expanding

• Water utility was cited for 132 pages of violations over 20 years, N.J. consultant finds

Your support is essential to our journalism. Please sign up for NJ.com now.

Steven Rodasmay be reached [email protected]. Follow him on Bluesky [email protected].