Tullytown is located in Burlington County, a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. There, the corporation Waste Management, Inc, (WM) runs the Tullytown landfill since the eighties. This is one of the 293 active landfill disposal sites that this company manages, but this one is special because this landfill receives several odor complaints from the community. The odor annoyance was so noticeable that WM had to agree to pay $2 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of residents on both sides of the Delaware River who claimed that noxious odors lowered property values and affected their quality of life.
The Houston based corporation Waste Management, Inc (WM) was founded in 1971 and runs 293 active landfill disposal sites. Not many companies in the world run this number of landfills. One of their landfills is located in Tullytown, New Jersey and the residents around of Tullytown have long drawn complaints about the smell of this Landfill.
This Landfill has being routinely inspected by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) since its opening in 1988. Citizens could even track this Environmental permit with automatic email updates from the DEP.
On May 2015 following a permit review process, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection ordered the company to cease all waste disposal operations on or before May 22, 2017 and completely close and cap the landfill. Residents' concerns were cited as a significant factor in its decision.
Before that, on December 10, 2014 filed their Complaint and an Amended Complaint on May 14, 2015. On August 14, 2015, plaintiffs moved for class certification and on September 1, 2015 a Settlement was reached. The operator of a Pennsylvania landfill agreed to pay $2 million to settle the class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of residents on both sides of the Delaware River
The tentative settlement calls for Waste Management to pay $1.4 million to residents near the Tullytown landfill, which had long drawn complaints about its smell from Burlington County and Bucks County, Pa. Homeowners. who claimed that noxious odors lowered property values and affected their quality of life.
Under the proposed deal, Waste Management was also required to install and operate two odor misting systems for about $300,000, apply odor control suppressants on weekends for about $300,000 and power wash the docks and walkways of the Florence Marina twice a month. In addition the reception of wastewater treatment sludges or biosolids was also forbidden due to their high odor content.
Read more about this odor conflict in the very interesting and well documented article written by Cristina Rojas, from the New Jersey On-Line LLC.
There is also a very interesting article that I recommend to read written by Elise Young showing what looks like the point of view of WM.
Photo: courtesy of CATSOT
If you find this article interesting, you might also be interested in these articles.
- When Theory does not Match Common Sense. A typical Case Study of an Intensive Pig Farm in the UK
- Everett/Marysville Regional Odor Monitoring Project
- II Chinese-Austrian Workshop on Environmental Odour in Shanghai, China, the 20th & 21st September 2016
- An overview of odour regulation throughout North America
- Managing Total Facility Odour Emissions – What is your “Odour Pie” Image?
