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TRENTON
-- Acting on a motion by the state, a New
Jersey Superior Court judge has ordered
the shutdown of an Essex County meat plant
for failing to make court-ordered facility
improvements and operational changes required
to bring the plant into compliance with
state environmental laws, First Assistant
Attorney General Anne Milgram announced
today.
According to Milgram, the American Rendering
Corporation, Berkowitz Fat Company, Harry
Berkowitz Industries, Inc. and plant owner
Seymour Berkowitz must stop accepting new
meat waste at the Newark plant and halt
all meat rendering operations until they
demonstrate compliance with the court’s
order. In addition, the defendants have
been ordered to immediately remove all meat
waste and other products used in the rendering
process from the plant and transport them
to a site approved by the state Department
of Environmental Protection (DEP) for reuse
or disposal. Meat rendering plants typically
cook animal materials for use in making
tallow, grease, protein meal and/or bone
meal.
Located on Bay Avenue in the Ironbound section
of Newark, the plant processes more than
a million pounds of meat waste weekly. A
state lawsuit filed last month charged the
facility with being a persistent polluter
by rendering meat in cookers with air pollution
control equipment that was disconnected
or inoperable, and by using grease rather
than fuel oil in the facility’s boiler.
DEP has conducted numerous plant inspections
since 2005, resulting in more than $2 million
in pollution-related civil penalties. In
addition, pervasive odors from the plant
and evidence of rodents have generated many
complaints from neighboring residents and
business owners. On May 11, 2007, Superior
Court Judge Kenneth S. Levy ordered the
rendering facility and its owner to take
immediate action to correct certain violations
at the plant, but recent DEP inspections
have found almost total non-compliance with
the court order. The only attempt at compliance
documented by DEP was the partial covering
of meat with a tarp.
“Recent
inspections at this facility show that virtually
nothing has been done to correct significant,
environmentally-damaging violations. We
will not allow these defendants to continue
polluting,” said Milgram.
“This
particular facility was given ample opportunity
to correct its abysmal operations,”
said Department of Environmental Protection
Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson said. “The
people of Newark’s Ironbound community
deserve the same high quality of life that
other New Jerseyans enjoy. While we try
to work with business, let this be a warning
to others who choose to ignore our environmental
regulations.”
The
rendering plant receives hundreds of thousands
of pounds of meat waste daily from supermarkets,
butchers and restaurants in the region.
The material processed at the plant includes
out-of-date meat than cannot be sold to
consumers, butcher shop meat, fat scraps
and bones, as well as restaurant cooking
grease. Meat waste is typically brought
into the plant by trucks and dumped onto
the ground. The meat waste then is stored
outside and exposed to rain, heat, and vermin.
Ultimately, the meat waste is transported
along a conveyor and crushed before being
rendered in the plant’s cook-house.
In addition to violations related to air
pollution, the state previously cited the
plant as a source of water pollution via
run-off and direct discharge containing
such contaminants as fat and grease, blood,
diesel fuel and used engine oil. The state
has also cited the plant for its continuing
outdoor storage of tons of uncovered meat
waste.
The state charged in its lawsuit that Seymour
Berkowtiz refused to admit DEP inspectors
to the plant on Jan. 29, 2007, and failed
to take corrective actions that he promised
the DEP would be undertaken. Specifically,
Berkowitz furnished DEP in February 2007
with a list of 13 immediate and on-going
remedial actions he intended to take but,
during subsequent DEP visits, inspectors
saw no evidence of any attempt to correct
the violations.
In a new motion filed with the court this
week, the State charged that Berkowitz and
the other defendants have ignored Judge
Levy’s May 11 order by continuing
to process large quantities of meat waste
without proper operation of the plant’s
air pollution control units or “scrubbers,”
and that they continue to improperly store
meat waste – including rotting meat,
fat and bone – in a way that pollutes
the surrounding air, ground and groundwater.
The State’s motion also charged the
defendants with continuing to burn grease
instead of fuel in the plant’s boiler,
and that it has failed to make a good-faith
effort to install and operate equipment
needed to monitor air emissions.
In addition to potential environmental damage,
the state has contended that the meat plant
poses a major public nuisance because it
often emits strong odors in proximity to
private homes and businesses. Deputy Attorneys
General Gary Wolf and Daniel Greenhouse
from the Division of Law are handling the
matter on behalf of the DEP.
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