TRENTON – Attorney
General Paula T. Dow announced today that
attorneys from the Division of Law have
obtained a court order on behalf of the
state that effectively halts disposal activity
at the Top Soil Depot site in Wayne Township,
Passaic County.
On Monday, Superior Court
Judge Margaret M. McVeigh issued an Order
to Show Cause requested by state attorneys
on behalf of the Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) against more than 20 defendants
named in a state complaint pertaining to
solid waste fill activities at the Top Soil
location.
The order directs the defendants
to show cause, by April 15, why a permanent
injunction should not be entered against
them ordering them to remove fill material
and solid wastes from the site. Pending
that return date, the court will hold in
contempt any company that delivers fill
or other materials to Top Soil Depot, according
to the order.
The state’s complaint
alleges that more than 20 companies delivered
as much as 22,000-cubic-yards of fill and
solid waste to the site over the last 18
months with the permission of Top Soil’s
owner, Allan Rombough Sr., his son, Allan
Rombough, Jr., and Summer Freitas, an officer
for Rombough, Jr.’s company Tri State
Supply.
During the same time period,
Top Soil and Rombough, Sr. were under a
court order to remove fill from the site,
and to not accept any additional fill or
other materials.
In addition to charging
unlawful fill activity, the state’s
complaint alleges that the presence of solid
waste fill material at the Top Soil site
increases the threat of flood damage to
surrounding communities, and that all fill
must be removed to protect these communities.
The Top Soil site sits
within the floodway of the Ramapo and Pompton
Rivers, both of which experienced significant
flooding in the last two weeks.
Allan Rombough, Sr. is
also the subject of a separate order by
Judge McVeigh, issued August 30, 2010, which
penalizes him $1,000-per-day for each day
that he fails to comply with the prior fill
removal order. As of Monday, he had not
complied with the August 30 order.
Deputy Attorneys General Robert Kinney and
Lisa Pectol, assigned to the Division of
Law’s Environmental Enforcement Section,
handled the Top Soil matter on behalf of
the state.
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