45-foot high pile of dirt that towers over neighborhood gets removed

A few years ago, Cristoff Lindsey, now 62, noticed a contractor’s trucks hauling dirt to a property on the block behind his Camden home.

Slowly, almost imperceptibly, dirt began to poke above the tall, metal fence around the lot. Lindsey took only occasional notice because it was during the pandemic shutdown. But over months, the pile continued to grow, eventually rising an estimated 45 feet high, towering over a home just yards away and the entire neighborhood near Seventh and Chestnut Streets, dominating the view.

“It grew to one story high, then two stories,” Lindsey said. “When it got taller than the house next to it, I said, ‘Something’s not right.’ It kind of snuck up on us — 70,000 tons of material. It was insidious.”

As of Tuesday, about one-third of the pile had been removed by a contractor, the Glassboro-based Ambient Group, according to city, state, and federal officials, who gave a briefing on the removal. About 57 tons remain, which officials expect to be gone by February, a welcome development by neighbors such as Lindsey, who attended the briefing.

“It’s such a sigh of relief,” Lindsey said. “It’s an unfathomable [eyesore] for a residential neighbor. This is not an industrial park.”

Government officials cited the pile as an especially pernicious example of environmental injustice, saying the dumping was illegal. The removal, which began in March, is the result of multiple city and state lawsuits and a city takeover the property through a tax foreclosure.

Mayor Victor Carstarphen estimated that it will take about 50 truckloads per workday until the pile is gone. The city has designated a special route for the trucks to take, with daily street cleaning and monitoring. The soil is being taken to Kinsley Landfill in Deptford. Once the pile is gone, Carstarphen said, the site will be tested for contamination, which is likely given that it has been used as an industrial site for 100 years.

Carstarphen said the city eventually would use the property to benefit the residents, though it’s unclear how, whether it’s a park or some other use.

“We’ll turn this into a brighter situation for our community,” Carstarphen said. “We’ll sit down with the community and talk and see what’s best suited for this area. It’s an opportunity to do something really nice so that years from now kids won’t remember what went on here when they were little.”

Olivet Simpson, interim executive director for the Camden Redevelopment Agency (CRA), said the removal and site work is costing millions, with $6 million coming through the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan from 2021 that outlined funding as part of pandemic recovery efforts. Other funding comes from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, New Jersey Economic Development Authority, and the CRA.

The property has a long history as an eyesore. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection sued one former owner and longtime operator of the site, S. Yaffa & Sons Inc., in 2021, saying 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 suit noted that Camden, with a “significant low-income and minority population,” has “been disproportionately exposed to high-polluting facilities and to the resultant threats of high levels of air, water, and soil pollution, and accompanying potential for increased public health impacts.”

The DEP asked the court to order a cleanup in July against S. Yaffa & Sons, which started dumping at the site in 2013. But owner Charles Yaffa had died, and the property was sold in 2019 to Weyhill Realty Holdings LLC.

Weyhill is owned by Sewell contractor Anthony Franchi, who said in a previous interview that he initially planned to use the site to store trucks, equipment, and material generated from his earthmoving business, hoping to eventually develop the site into another use.

The city shut down his operations in April 2021, citing lack of a mercantile license. Officials called the site an illegal dump and entered into an agreement with multiple agencies in July 2022 to authorize action to take the land through foreclosure. In September 2022, officials seized control of the land, some of which was contaminated, on two sides of the street.

» READ MORE: Officials seize Camden property with towering dirt pile called symbol of environmental injustice

The pile of fill and excavation waste was just yards from a vacant home on the 600 block of Chestnut Street. Covered with weeds, the pile loomed above the intersection at Seventh and Chestnut Streets. Other piles of debris, including tires and broken concrete, also covered the land. Some of the waste spilled onto city property.

“Illegal dumping will not be tolerated in the city of Camden,” Councilman Angel Fuentes said. “Let me just say that one more time: Illegal dumping will not be tolerated in the city of Camden. … Know we’re going to go after you. This should have never had happened. And it’s not fair for our residents that have to tolerate this.”

This article has been corrected to remove a reference to six to eight tons of soil having been removed by November 21, 2023.