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TRENTON
-- A Superior Court judge ruled today that
an Essex County meat plant ordered closed
two months ago for repeatedly fouling the
air and violating numerous New Jersey environmental
laws cannot resume operating without approval
from the state, 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 continue to be barred
by court order from resuming their meat
waste processing activities until the state
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
gives its formal consent to a resumption
of operations.
In
June, the defendants were ordered by Superior
Court Judge Kenneth S. Levy to stop accepting
new meat waste at the Newark plant and halt
all meat rendering activity. In addition,
the defendants were ordered to immediately
remove all meat waste and other products
used in the rendering process and transport
them to a site approved by the DEP for reuse
or disposal. The plant has been idle since
mid-June.
Today,
Judge Levy denied a motion by the defendants
seeking modification of the court's June
order to allow them to operate a grease
transfer business on the facility property.
The state argued successfully that the defendants
should not be allowed to start such an operation
given their history of violations of state
environmental laws and court orders. In
addition, the court ruled that any activity
by the defendants at the plant would violate
orders issued by the City of Newark, which
require that the entire facility be vacated
because of numerous construction code violations.
Located on Bay Avenue in the Ironbound section
of Newark, the plant processed more than
a million pounds of meat waste weekly before
being shut down. A state lawsuit in May
of this year 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.
Seymour
Berkowitz, 72, of Allendale, and Berkowitz
Fat Company Inc, doing business as American
Rendering Corporation and Harry Berkowitz
Industries Inc., were indicted on July 23
of this year by a state grand jury on charges
related to the release of contaminated wastewater
and foul odors from the meat rendering plant,
and their failure to maintain required air
pollution equipment. The four-count state
grand jury indictment included one count
of violation of the state Water Pollution
Control Act and three counts of violation
of the state Air Pollution Control Act,
all third degree crimes.
DEP had conducted numerous plant inspections
since 2005, resulting in more than $2 million
in pollution-related civil penalties. On
May 11, 2007, Judge Levy ordered the rendering
facility and its owner to take immediate
action to correct certain violations at
the plant, but subsequent DEP inspections
found almost total non-compliance with the
court order
When operating, the rendering plant received
hundreds of thousands of pounds of meat
waste daily from supermarkets, butchers
and restaurants in the region. The material
processed at the plant included out-of-date
meat that could not be sold to consumers,
butcher shop meat, fat scraps and bones,
as well as restaurant cooking grease. Meat
waste was typically brought into the plant
by trucks and dumped onto the ground. The
meat waste was then stored outside and exposed
to rain, heat, and vermin.
In addition to violations related to air
pollution, the state 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 also cited the
plant for its continuing outdoor storage
of tons of uncovered meat waste.
The state charged in its lawsuit that Seymour
Berkowitz 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 motion filed with the court in June,
the State charged that Berkowitz and the
other defendants had 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 had continued to improperly
store meat waste – including rotting
meat, fat and bone – in a way that
polluted the surrounding air, ground and
groundwater.
The
City of Newark’s construction and
building code inspectors conducted exterior
and interior inspections of the Berkowitz
facility in June and July of this year.
The inspectors determined that the entire
property, including all structures on the
site, were unsafe.
Deputy Attorneys General Gary Wolf and Daniel
Greenhouse and Legal Assistant Becky Hersker
from the Division of Law are handling the
Berkowitz matter on behalf of the DEP.
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