I found out today that I lived within 5 miles from the largest landfill in Middlesex county. Turns out: "The lower Raritan River is home to a number of large landfills, including KinBuc, Edison, ILR and Edgeboro. Edgeboro Landfill is more than 300 acres, bordered by both the Raritan River and the South River. "
No wonder it was such a sad place. I always felt that... it was such a sad place. And I lived so close to the water. The water was crying, no doubt. Man, what a pity.
Here are some of the links I sent to my parents today, to make them feel a little guilty for living there for 6 years. (and elsewhere in East Brunswick for another 2). And for not understanding that NJ sucks, but particularly what ill spirited lazy humans are doing to it, who do not care at all for the environment or the people who live around it.
"Landfills emit methane and other gases that must be captured or burned off. In the cases of the two in East Brunswick, the systems in place were not collecting enough emissions, the federal agencies said. That Middlesex County had built on top of the capped landfill exacerbated the problem and made it difficult to collect emissions, the EPA said."
"Edgeboro is a mess," he said. "It's long overdue for the landfill to be closed. Instead, Middlesex County came in and is dumping on top of it, industrial wastes in addition to municipal garbage."
" The Edgeboro landfill did not have an adequate landfill gas collection and control system in place, which allowed excessive amounts of landfill gases to escape into the surrounding area. The facilitys air pollution control devices were also not operated properly, and various types of monitoring were not conducted.
The nonmethane organic compounds (NMOC) in landfill gas contain volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants that can result in adverse effects to the respiratory system, damage to the nervous system and cancer. "
"For over a decade, solid waste discharged directly from Edgeboro Landfill into the Raritan River. "
"Edgeboro Disposal Inc. has been treating the Raritan River like its own private garbage can, instead of the resource that it is," Spiegel said, noting that he would like to see daily fines issued by the DEP until the issues are resolved at the landfill."
The place I lived in seriously has the spirit of one of the loneliest forgotten uncared for places on earth. It's hard to describe how this happens in a semi-urban area. It's just awful. There's no better way to describe it other than, someone took a shit on it.
===
PS. I found some cool aerial images of this area throughout history. My parents bought a townhouse in a tacky housing development that was built in 1996 so you don't have to go that far back to see a nice habitat in that area.
1995 before the development was built (see exposed soil)
1979 it looks like there was some type of man made(?) pool there
1954... wow it's all green! no wonder they call it the garden state! and look there were farms along Rt 18, and over the plot of land where the East Brunswick Mall is now. Darn.. who knew that plot of land was ever being used for something useful :-P
1947... no one here! it was farmland
1931... quite wild! :-)
