TRENTON
– The owner of the Crowne Plaza Hotel
in Secaucus pleaded guilty today to unlawfully
discharging wastewater contaminated with
sewage into the Hackensack River.
The
corporate owner of the hotel, RD Secaucus
LP, pleaded guilty to a fourth-degree charge
of unlawfully discharging a pollutant in
violation of the New Jersey Water Pollution
Control Act before Superior Court Judge
Lourdes I. Santiago in Hudson County, according
to Criminal Justice Director Stephen J.
Taylor. The corporation, through its attorney,
pleaded guilty to an amended count of a
Sept. 2, 2009 state grand jury indictment
obtained by the Division of Criminal Justice.
In
pleading guilty, the owner admitted that
it unlawfully discharged polluted wastewater
into the Hackensack River without a permit
from the state Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) or the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
Under
the plea agreement, the defendant must pay
$75,000 to Hackensack Riverkeeper for its
river patrol and maintenance programs. It
must also implement a program to monitor
the handling of its waste water and prevent
the discharge of pollutants into the river
or other surface waters.
An
investigation by the Division of Criminal
Justice Environmental Crimes Section and
the DEP revealed that putrid wastewater
from an underground tunnel was collecting
in a grate-covered pit beside the hotel,
located at 2 Harmon Plaza. Hotel staff rigged
a pump in the pit and a hose, through which
the foul-smelling wastewater was pumped
across a grassy area to the riverbank.
The
investigation began when Captain Bill Sheehan
of Hackensack Riverkeeper, an environmental
organization dedicated to protecting the
river, alerted the Division of Criminal
Justice that he received an anonymous tip
that the hotel was discharging pollutants
into the river.
On
June 8, 2009, detectives from the Division
of Criminal Justice executed a search warrant
at the hotel, along with a DEP water inspector.
They performed physical examinations related
to the pit and the sources of the wastewater,
conducted tests, took samples, and seized
records.
A
team from the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission
assisted by deploying a robot equipped with
a video camera into the underground tunnel
connected to the pit. PVSC also assisted
in analysis of water samples. That same
day, DEP issued a Notice of Violation to
the hotel, ordering it to cease any activity
that would cause wastewater from the pit
to flow into the river.
The
hotel subsequently had a system installed
to pump any storm water and wastewater that
collects in the tunnels and pits under the
hotel into the municipal sanitary sewer
system.
In
implementing the monitoring program, RD
Secaucus must retain an environmental consultant
approved by the Division of Criminal Justice
to monitor the flow rate of liquid material
pumped into the sanitary sewer system from
the pits, grates and tunnels at the hotel
site. If the consultant, in monitoring the
metered flow rates of material pumped into
the sewer system, detects any changes in
rate which may indicate the presence of
a leak in the piping under the hotel building,
RD Secaucus must have the consultant take
immediate action to identify and repair
the leak and provide any samples required
by the DEP and Secaucus municipal officials.
Supervising
Deputy Attorney General Edward R. Bonanno,
Lt. Jeffrey Gross, Detective Michael Klumpp,
Detective Steven Ogulin and Detective Dawn
Ryan conducted the investigation for the
Environmental Crimes Section of the Division
of Criminal Justice’s Major Crimes
Bureau. Supervising Deputy Attorney General
Bonanno presented the case to the state
grand jury and took the guilty plea.
Attorney
General Dow thanked Hackensack Riverkeeper,
the DEP and the Passaic Valley Sewerage
Commission for their assistance.
During
the past two years, the Division of Criminal
Justice Environmental Crimes Section has
partnered with Hackensack Riverkeeper and
NY/NJ Baykeeper to pursue a community environmental
policing strategy, establishing a pilot
program in which those citizen stewards
patrol New Jersey waterways looking for
potential environmental crimes.
By
working closely with law enforcement and
monitoring suspected problem areas, these
environmental groups will enhance the ability
of the Division of Criminal Justice, DEP
and other law enforcement agencies to detect
and prosecute environmental violations and
potentially avert serious environmental
and public health incidents.
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