Supreme Court won’t hear Fenimore Petition

The Supreme Court of New Jersey has denied a petition by the state Department of Environmental Protection to consider overturning an appellate court decision that found the DEP overstepped its authority in June 2013 by seizing Fenimore Landfill in Roxbury.

A letter signed by Supreme Court Clerk Mark Neary, dated Monday, informed the DEP of the court’s denial to review an appellate court decision, handed down in November, which vacated an emergency order by DEP Commissioner Bob Martin that allowed for the immediate takeover.

The decision affirms the latest victory in the legal battle between Fenimore owners Strategic Environmental Partners and the DEP, which took control of Fenimore on the same day that Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill establishing parameters to allow seizures of landfills that ceased operations prior to January 1982.

“The appeals court found that the DEP exceeded its authority by seizing control of SEP’s property without first obtaining judicial approval,” said SEP attorney Matthew Fredericks. “In activating an emergency order, the department also erred by using past records of hydrogen sulfide emissions at the site when standards for unacceptable emissions from aged landfills, like Fenimore, were not enacted until June 26, 2013 — the day of the takeover, the ruling said.”

Fenimore operated form the 1950s until it was shut down in 1979. Strategic Environmental Partners purchased the 104-acre property in 2010 and obtained permission from DEP to accept tipping fees to help fund a proper capping of the site with the plan to establish a solar farm there.

But by late 2012, noxious hydrogen sulfide gas produced on the landfill quickly grew from a nuisance to what residents, and later, legislators, called a health hazard.

Resident groups at first cheered the takeover, but later turned their anger toward DEP when the fumes got worse and a controversial capping project was announced. The project began last year and is expected to be completed this year.

DEP spokesman Bob Considine declined comment on the Supreme Court ruling because of ongoing litigation, but said “Our work on the landfill will continue. The landfill is capped and the new oxidizer is installed.”

Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-428-6627; wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com.