Sludge Busters return for environmental encore
Possibility of garbage transfer station irks four feisty residents
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer

New Jersey's elected federal officials can expect to receive some mail from Freehold Township after volunteers joined the Sludge Busters to stuff envelopes with letters from people stating their opposition to the possibility that an unregulated waste transfer station could be established on a portion of the former Brockway plant property on Route 33.

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP - Look out Freehold Township, the Sludge Busters are back and they are not happy.

More than 10 years after fighting their first environmental battle, the group of Freehold Township residents has returned to oppose the possible opening of a waste transfer station on Route 33 about a half-mile west of the Kozloski Road overpass.

And please do not refer to the Sludge Busters as just housewives. They won't take kindly to it. In between carpools, doctors appointments, haircuts and everything else that needs to get done, the Sludge Busters are fighting what they say is an impending danger in their community.

Their concern stems from a loophole in a federal law which apparently would allow a railroad operator to place a waste transfer facility on property in front of the former Brockway glass plant. While no definitive plan has been announced for the site, rumors have been swirling for the past month that a waste transfer station could be established on the Route 33 property.

Annmarie Howley, Maureen McCann, Lauren Gener and Laurie Zikos are doing their best to rally opposition against any plan that could bring garbage to the site.

Once Howley found out about what could happen on the property she knew what to do.

"I called [Township Administrator] Tom Antus and asked him what was going on with the waste transfer station," she said, adding that she did not get the information she was seeking so she told the administrator, "Get ready Tom, we're taking out the shirts again."

She said Antus knew exactly what she meant.

Howley was referring to T-shirts with the name Sludge Busters on the back that the group members wore in 1994 while they were fighting a plan to locate a sludge-to-methanol plant, coincidentally, on same Route 33 property that is at the heart of the current issue. The group has had new shirts made up which state, "Sludge Busters 2007, Stop the Toxic Waste Transfer Station."

Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) has said state officials have tried to impose regulations on trash piles at other Garden State waste transfer stations in an effort to protect citizens who live and work near those locations.

In Freehold Township, Ashland Rail-road has applied for a notice of exemption which would clear the way for it to create a solid waste transfer station on 10-acres next to an existing rail line adjacent to the Route 33 property.

At this point it is unclear what companies will be shipping material to the site, what that material will be, where the material will come from, where it will be shipped to or whether it will remain at the Route 33 parcel.

"Here we go again," is what Gener said she thought upon hearing about the issue.

The women began a door-to-door campaign asking people to joining the fight again the transfer station and said their efforts more than 3,000 letters that were sealed on May 11 and sent to U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ).

Sate Sen. Ellen Karcher (D-Mon-mouth and Mercer) and Republican Township Committeeman Anthony Ammiano joined the effort when the Sludge Busters prepared their 3,000 letters for mailing.

"From children to seniors, it was so wonderful to see politicians like Sen. Karcher and Committeeman Ammiano, who took time out of their evening for even few hours, just like regular people," Howley said. "It would be lovely if all politicians felt it was incumbent upon them to serve the regular people in the community with the support they need."

The Sludge Busters' letter to the politicians states there are many facilities located within a 5-mile radius of the Route 33 site that will immediately be affected by the "possible dangerous ramifications" of the solid waste that could be dumped at the site.

Such facilities include CentraState Medical Center, nursery schools, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools the Monmouth County Police Academy, public parks, residential communities and underground tributaries that feed into the Manasquan Reservoir.

The Sludge Busters attended the Township Committee's May 8 meeting to discuss the issues with local officials.

"I was a bit taken aback that a Congressman from Red Bank [Pallone] was concerned about our community, yet we hadn't heard anything about what our own local officials were doing," Howley said.

"Maybe [local elected officials] should have had a better public face on this. As elected officials if they offered to come out publicly in regard to this issue they would have calmed people," McCann added.

The committee has passed a resolution opposing the waste transfer facility and Mayor Dorothy Avallone stated in a letter to the editor that township officials are opposed to such a facility.

According to Howley, the intent of the federal law exempting railroads from state and local regulations was to permit goods and services to be brought to rural areas without the railroad operators having to meet certain costly code requirements.

The law "was not intended to transport and transfer solid waste," she said.

"Our homes, our health and our children may be affected by this," Zikos said. "We have to protect the future of our children. Our local officials live here and work here, too. They should be just as concerned as we are."

Howley said the Sludge Busters will see the fight through to the finish line.

Federal legislation has been introduced to close the railroad loophole.

"We're not any different than anyone else," Howley said. "I think most people wait to take cues from someone else. We just decided to move forward. Most people want to be involved, they are just not sure how to go about it."

The Sludge Busters has funded the postage and expenses with $2,000 out of pocket money so far. To date they have received about $800 in donations. Anyone wishing to donate to the Sludge Busters may do so by contacting Howley at (732) 577-9163 or by sending an e-mail to

howmom4@hotmail.com