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Sayreville residents to get legal help on recycling-plant dust
August 7th, 2007
by: SULEMAN DIN
Star-Ledger
Environmental panel gets OK to hire lawyer
The Sayreville Environmental Commission plans to hire an attor ney to answer residents’ questions about dust being dispersed from the Gerdau Ameristeel site.
Commission vice chairman Ronald Green said the lawyer is needed to give concerned residents immediate answers. The borough council yesterday gave the commis sion approval to hire the attorney, but at this point Green said he did not know how much the legal services would cost.
In addition, teams conducting tests on the dust for Gerdau Ame risteel and the borough today plan to visit 15 homes in the neighborhood of the plant, Green said.
The commission was supposed to meet last night, and Gerdau Ameristeel representatives were to have attended that session. But the meeting was rescheduled for 7 p.m. tonight at borough hall, Green said.
The meeting was postponed to allow for the testing to be done first, Green said, adding results were expected in three weeks.
Residents in Sayreville’s Horseshoe Road section near the steel plant have complained about gritty, metallic dust emanating from the site and are concerned there are higher than normal inci dences of cancer in the community.
“There are a lot of very, very angry people in that neighborhood,” said Tim Eppinger, a Wilbur Road resident who has led the community protest against the pollution. “Every time someone says something is going to happen, but nothing ever does.”
The environmental commission had pushed for Gerdau Ameristeel representatives and Sayreville officials to test the dust and determine if it is harmful.
Gerdau Ameristeel also is holding a private meeting at its plant Thursday in the hope of coming to an agreement with residents and local officials. Eppinger said he was among six residents invited to the meeting.
“I think it’s going to be very hard to come up with a good solu tion,” he said. “You can scoop this stuff up everywhere.”
Other tests have been done on the dust.
From samples collected by Ep pinger, the Edison Wetlands Association found elevated levels of chemicals such as mercury, arsenic and lead, said Robert Spiegel, president of the local environmentalist group.
“It was a real witch’s brew of heavy metals in that stuff,” Spiegel said. “It was high enough to be a problem.”
Despite residents’ concerns, though, a recent state health investigation determined there was no evidence to indicate cancer clusters in Sayreville.
In late June, the borough closed International Mill Service Inc., which rented space on the Gerdau Ameristeel site. Inspectors discovered International Mill Service had been operating without a business license since 2004 and had expanded operations beyond what the town originally approved.
Gerdau Ameristeel is the state’s largest scrap metal recycling plant. More than 500,000 tons of scrap metal are recycled there each year, and it employs more than 300 people.
The plant has been in operation for more than 30 years, but Gerdau Ameristeel has owned it since late 2002.
Suleman Din may be reached at (732) 404.8084 or sdin@starled ger.com.
