Sweeney Announces Legislation Targeting Contaminated Sites

Vowing to take on “corporate pirates” who leave behind contaminated industrial sites, state Sen. President Stephen Sweeney fired a shot at Sunoco, among others, from their own front yard, announcing Wednesday his sponsorship of a new piece of legislation that would mandate tax appeal windfalls go first to cleaning up environmental damage at closed industrial sites.

With the rusting towers of the refinery, spidery pipelines and discolored storage tanks behind him, a visibly angry Sweeney repeatedly blasted Sunoco, which bought the plant in 2004 and shut it down for good in 2010, for what he said was an obvious attempt to grab as much as they could in property tax appeals before cutting ties with both West Deptford and Gloucester County.

“We’re not going to let a corporation shut down their operations and walk away from an environmental disaster that exists here with a whole bunch of money from the government,” he said.

The legislation, which is set to be introduced at the beginning of next week, will hold companies accountable, Sweeney said. It’s aimed at fully- or partially-decommissioned industrial sites with federal or state cleanup orders to take money won in tax appeals and direct it to a state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) fund, which would be used to restore the blighted landscape.

Any leftover money from that process would be returned to the companies after that cleanup is complete.

“If you want to leave, fine, shut down,” Sweeney said. “You’re not going to get $15 or $20 million, or whatever the number is, and walk away and leave a fence around this place.”

The Senate President singled out Sunoco and Eagle Point, which is on the DEP’s list of contaminated sites in need of remediation, at least in part because of his familiarity with the situation–as a West Deptford resident and former Gloucester County freeholder director, Sweeney said he’s seen the oil company make decisions that favored shareholders at the expense of the community.

“It’s only about money for them,” he said. “They threw 500 people out of their jobs because of competition on the river, when they knew all along they were going to shut the plant down.”

Now, Sweeney said it’s obvious Sunoco will never restart the 63-year-old facility, adding the company has already started dismantling pieces on their way to completely demolishing the refinery.

The legislation isn’t just about punishing one company, said current county Freeholder Director Robert Damminger, Sweeney’s right-hand man when the two served on the board together, but aims to protect residents around sites like the Eagle Point refinery.

“This is a signal to the rest of the polluters in the state of New Jersey that this will not be accepted,” he said.

The announcement of the new legislation comes a week after the committee with the oil giant, rather than wage a war of attrition in tax court.

The battle over tax appeals has been costly already; committeeman Sam Cianfarini said the township has dropped more than $3 million on legal fees over the last decade on appeals, including $500,000 last year alone.

“We just cannot afford another hit,” he said.

While neither Cianfarini nor Mayor Ray Chintall would comment specifically about the settlement, citing the fact that it’s still ongoing litigation, nor would they comment on Sweeney’s estimate of $15 to $20 million as the final figure, they said they generally agreed with the sentiment of the senator’s proposal.

“Our community deserves the land to be brought back to into at least what the DEP environmental standards are,” Cianfarini said.

Still, Chintall said he was surprised by Sweeney’s move to enact new legislation as a first resort, and said he hopes the Senate president has the area’s best interests in mind.

“This is a bigger issue than West Deptford can handle alone,” Chintall said.