EPA will spend $2.5M in Camden to clean up site where giant dirt pile caused underground contamination

A 45-foot high pile of illegally dumped construction fill that once marred Camden’s Bergen Square neighborhood was removed several years ago.

But contamination still lurks beneath, including lead, arsenic, and PFAS.

Now, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded a $2.5 million grant to excavate and clean up the 1.6-acre site by scooping out and disposing of a four-foot deep layer of ground, now leveled with crushed stone.

The grant was announced Thursday at a news conference with regional EPA administrator Michael Martucci, Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen, U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, and other officials.

“It’s a brownfield grant,” Martucci said, noting the money would be used to assess the site and clean it so it can be used for a productive purpose.

“There’s underground contamination,” he said. “To return the site to beneficial reuse, we need to complete the environmental cleanup.”

Martucci said the money would be awarded after Camden finds a developer for the site and submits plans for its new use.

Carstarphen said the cleanup brings more hope to the blighted neighborhood.

“This is a great day for our community,” Carstarphen said. “It’s been a long, long journey.”

The pile, the result of years of dumping construction fill and other material at the site, grew so big that it loomed over a lone home on the street on the 600 block of Chestnut Street.

Covered with weeds, it towered above an intersection with debris, including tires and broken concrete. Some of the waste spilled onto city property.

The pile was removed by the city in 2024. In all, crews removed 4,000 tons of solid waste, 100 tons of tires, and 15 drums.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection sued one former owner and longtime operator of the site, S. Yaffa & Sons Inc.

The 2021 suit alleged the company “unlawfully imported and stockpiled solid waste on their Camden property, including contaminated fill material, construction and demolition debris, and waste tires” and resisted taking action after receiving numerous violation notices and an order to stop.

The owner imported and stockpiled solid waste — including contaminated soil, construction and demolition debris, and waste tires at the property before selling it in 2019, according to the suit.

The suit also noted that Camden, with a “significant low-income and minority population,” has “been disproportionately exposed to high-polluting facilities.

The city shut down the site in April 2021 as an illegal dump.

It entered into an agreement with multiple agencies in July 2022 to authorize action to take the land through foreclosure. In September 2022, officials seized the land, then owned by a contractor. Some of the land was on both sides of the street.

Officials began removing the pile in 2023 and finished in June 2024, leaving a large open space that immediately changed the character of the neighborhood.

Olivett Simpson, executive director of the Camden Redevelopment Agency, said an estimated 11,800 tons of soil will be removed and then the site will be covered with clean soil.

Camden is currently assessing what kind of redevelopment will work on the site, which is zoned for industrial and commercial buildings. Simpson said the city has already held meetings to engage the community on the sites future, which will likely include retail and housing.

Jennifer Taylor, an engineer with BRS Inc., a brownfield consulting firm, is working with the city to evaluate redevelopment opportunities and expects a plan to be adopted by the end of the year.

The ground underneath must be made suitable for people to use the property, Taylor said.

“We want the momentum of this site not to go away,” Taylor said.

A new home was being built less than a block from the site as she spoke, something officials said would have been unlikely had the pile still stood.