Camden, New Jersey has faced environmental issues due to its history of heavy industry and the improper disposal of contaminants. Environmental concerns include air/water pollution and soil contamination, as well as Superfund sites throughout the city. In recent years, illegal dumping has become an issue due to all the vacant lots throughout the city and lack of security and maintenance coming from City Hall.
Air and water pollution
Situated on the Delaware River waterfront, the city of Camden contains many pollution-causing facilities, such as a trash incinerator and a sewage plant. Despite the additions of new waste-water and trash treatment facilities in the 1970s and 1980s, pollution in the city remains a problem due to faulty waste disposal practices and outdated sewer systems. The open-air nature of the waste treatment plants cause the smell of sewage and other toxic fumes to permeate through the air. This has encouraged local grassroots organizations to protest the development of these plants in Camden. The development of traffic-heavy highway systems between Philadelphia and South Jersey also contributed to the rise of air pollution in the area. Water contamination has been a problem in Camden for decades. In the 1970s, dangerous pollutants were found near the Delaware River at the Puchack Well Field, where many Camden citizens received their household water from, decreasing property values in Camden and causing health problems among the city's residents. Materials contaminating the water included cancer-causing metals and chemicals, affecting as many as 50,000 people between the early 1970s and late 1990s, when the six Puchack wells were officially shut down and declared a Superfund site. Camden also contains 22 of New Jersey's 217 combined sewer overflow outfalls, or CSOs, down from 28 in 2013.
Beginning in the fall of 2002, The Waterfront South Air Toxics Pilot Project was initiated when a DEP Workgroup made plans to study the Air Toxics of Camden City, specifically the Waterfront South neighborhood. The study was funded by a Community assessment, and a grant was provided from the USEPA to the DEP. The driving goal of the project was to develop tools that can quickly and accurately assess air quality. The project focused not only on air quality assessment, but also tools that can measure specific air toxics such as lead, arsenic, and cadmium which can come from various industrial manufacturing processes in the area. The subsequent studies focused on the Waterfront South neighborhood in Camden due to resident concerns about air quality. The area, covering less than one square mile, houses various sources of pollution, including the Camden County Sewage Treatment plant, the County Municipal Waste Combustor, a licorice processing plant, and a cement manufacturing facility. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) collaborated with a Community Advisory Committee comprising residents and professionals from the neighborhood. The Committee aided in identifying all significant air emission sources for the study and helped develop risk reduction strategies to address identified pollutants based on their risk assessment findings.
CCMUA The Camden City Municipal Utilities Authority, or CCMUA, was established in the early 1970s to treat sewage waste in Camden County, by City Democratic chairman and director of public works Angelo Errichetti, who became the authority's executive director. Errichetti called for a primarily state or federally funded sewage plant, which would have cost $14 million, and a region-wide collection of trash-waste. The sewage plant was a necessity to meet the requirements of the Federal Clean Water Act, as per the changes implemented to the act in 1972. James Joyce, chair of the county's Democratic Party at the time, had his own ambitions in regard to establishing a sewage authority that clashed with Errichetti's. While Errichetti formed his sewage authority through his own power, Joyce required the influence of the Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders to form his. Errichetti and Joyce competed against each other to gain the cooperation of Camden's suburban communities, with Errichetti ultimately succeeding. Errichetti's political alliance with the county freeholders of Cherry Hill gave him an advantage and Joyce was forced to disband his County Sewerage Authority.
Errichetti later replaced Joyce as county Democratic chairman, after the latter resigned due to bribery charges, and retained control of the CCMUA even after leaving his position as executive director in 1973 to run for mayor of Camden. The CCMUA originally planned for the sewage facilities in Camden to treat waste water through a primary and secondary process before having it deposited into the Delaware River; however, funding stagnated and byproducts from the plant began to accumulate, causing adverse environmental effects in Camden. Concerned about the harmful chemicals that were being emitted from the waste build-up, the CCMUA requested permission to dump five million gallons of waste into the Atlantic Ocean. Their request was denied and the CCMUA began searching for alternative ways to dispose of the sludge, which eventually led to the construction of an incinerator, as it was more cost effective than previously proposed methods. In 1975, the CCMUA purchased Camden's two sewage treatment plants for $11.3 million, the first payment consisting of $2.5 million and the final payment to be made by the end of 1978.
Contamination in Waterfront South
Camden's Waterfront South neighborhood, located in the southern part of the city between the Delaware River and Interstate 676, is home to two dangerously contaminated areas, Welsbach/General Gas Mantle and Martin Aaron, Inc., the former of which has been emanating low levels of gamma radiation since the early 20th century. Several industrial pollution sites, including the Camden County Sewage Plant, the County Municipal Waste Combustor, the world's largest licorice processing plant, chemical companies, auto shops, and a cement manufacturing facility, are present in the Waterfront South neighborhood, which covers less than one square mile. The neighborhood contains 20% of Camden's contaminated areas and over twice the average number of pollution-emitting facilities per New Jersey ZIP Code.
According to the Rutgers University Journal of Law and Urban Policy, African-American residents of Waterfront South have a greater chance of developing cancer than anywhere in the state of Pennsylvania, 90% higher for females and 70% higher for males. 61% of Waterfront South residents have reported respiratory difficulties, with 48% of residents experiencing chronic chest tightness. Residents of Waterfront South formed the South Camden Citizens in Action, or SCCA, in 1997 to combat the environmental and health problems imposed from the rising amount of pollution and the trash-to-steam facilities being implemented by the CCMUA. One such facility, the Covanta Camden Energy Recovery Center (formerly the Camden Resource Recovery Facility), is located on Morgan Street in the Waterfront South neighborhood and burns 350,000 tons of waste from every town in Camden County, aside from Gloucester Township. The waste is then converted into electricity and sold to utility companies that power thousands of homes.
On December 12, 2018, renovation of Phoenix Park in Waterfront South was completed. The renovation was done by the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority as well as the Camden Stormwater Management and Resource Training Initiative. According to officials, the park will improve air quality and stormwater management. Additionally, the park features walking trails providing a view of the Delaware River. Due to the project's success, it was named one of the 10 most innovative uses of federal water infrastructure funding in the country by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Environmental Council of the United States.
Former Harrison Avenue Landfill
Within the waterfront Cramer Hill neighborhood of Camden City at the intersection of Cooper River and the Delaware River, a landfill site operated from the years 1952 to 1971. This landfill spanned 86 acres; debris and garbage consistently drifted into the riverbank while in operation, thus contaminating the waterfront and wildlife of the Delaware River. The landfill was never officially closed, which made it a location ripe for illegal dumping and unauthorized disposal of trash and toxins. In 2006, the Salvation Army allocated $59 million from the Ray and Joan Kroc estate to clean up and later construct a Salvation Army Kroc Center on 24 acres of this land which, as of the opening in 2014, serves as a community center for residents of Camden City. After 2014, an additional $74 million was granted towards the remediation of the former landfill: $22 million came from the HDSRF, $4 million in public funds, and the remaining $48 million was granted in settlement of natural resource damage from contributing polluters.
Utilizing these funds, the NJDEP Office of Natural Resource Restoration (ONRR) embarked on a collaborative project to transform the former landfill into Cramer Hill Waterfront Park which was officially opened for public use in November 2021. The park spans 62 acres in which existing freshwater wetlands were restored and protected and several amenities were provided to the park. The NJDEP ONRR states, “Other features one may enjoy within the park include a grassed amphitheater, an entry plaza, exercise stations, a fishing plaza extending into the pond, 3 miles of hiking/biking paths and trails, historic and educational signage, a picnic area, a playground, the sensory garden, multiple shoreline observation areas, and a summit vista with panoramic views of downtown Camden, the Camden Waterfront, the Delaware River, Petty’s Island, the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, and the Philadelphia skyline.”
Superfund sites Identified by the EPA in 1980, the Welsbach/General Gas Mantle site contained soil and building materials contaminated with radioactive materials. Radiation became prominent when the companies used thorium, a radioactive element withdrawn from monazite ore, in the production of their gas mantles. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, Welsbach Company was located in Gloucester City, which borders Camden, and was a major producer of gas mantles until gas lights were replaced by electric lights. The fabric of the Welsbach gas mantle was put into a solution that consisted of 99% thorium nitrate and 1% cerium nitrate in distilled water, causing it to emit a white light. Operating from 1915 to 1940 in Camden, General Gas Mantle, or GGM, was a manufacturer of gas mantles and served as a competitor for Welsbach. Unlike Welsbach, General Gas Mantle used only a refined, commercial thorium solution to produce its gas mantles. Welsbach and General Gas Mantle went out of business in the 1940s and had no successors.Greenberg, Gail. "County History" , Camden County, New Jersey. Accessed July 3, 2011.