Carteret’s Old Cyanide Sludgepits Now Promise Big Benefits
New ‘Logistics Center to Bring Jobs; New Tax Revenue
CARTERET, NJ — Borough officials and executives from Crow Holdings Industrial have broken ground on a 126-acre logistics center that features three huge new commercial-industrial flex-buildings and promises millions in new revenue.
This logistics center – off Salt Meadow Road between the New Jersey Turnpike and the Rahway River waterfront – will have 1.2-million-square-feet multi-use commercial space that will bring $135 million in property taxes to Carteret over the next three decades.
“That’s real money (to) help with tax stabilization. It’s among the reasons why Carteret has gone from the third-highest-taxed towns in our region to one of the lowest,” said Mayor Daniel Reiman in a prepared statement.
For 40 years, this site was home to 85 acres of cyanide-contaminated sludge in six huge lagoons.The sludge and the materials dumped in those lagoons contained a variety of contaminants, including heavy metals and semi-volatile organics. The contamination came from a bygone era when environmental regulations were lax or non-existent and industry filled low-lying areas considered to have little or no value.
Laws and regulations have been tightened since the 1970s, but Carteret was left with 2 million tons of sludge in these open pits.
Data from the 1980s estimated 100 pounds of cyanide were being released into the groundwater and river every day, while year after year the berms holding the material back deteriorated. Little was done to change this, despite ongoing efforts of local officials and community leaders who persistently sought a solution that would address the environmental and geotechnical issues at the site.
That all changed: The site was remediated bySoil Safe Inc., a private Maryland-based business that made this Carteret site a temporary home to a DEP-regulated soil recycling facility. It capped the property with engineered fill, controlling the sludge pits and cutting off the tons of cyanide and other harmful materials that were seeping into the river each year.
The cleanup project, which got approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection and enthusiastic support from Carteret and Middlesex County officials, preserved 40 acres of wetlands, while creating 50 acres of new natural habitat. Meanwhile, the project also generated millions of dollars in new recycling revenue for Carteret's recreational and environmental improvements
Soil Safe's efforts on-site and Crow Holdings' new facility has already delivered $9.75 million in host-community and redevelopment fees; the facility is creating hundreds of construction jobs; and will ultimately provide more than a thousand of permanent jobs, Reiman explained.
The mayor noted Crow Holdings Industrial has also demonstrated its good-neighbor support with a $250,000 donation to the Carteret Performing Arts & Event Center and $350,000 for access improvements to the northern Riverwalk.
The groundbreaking on June 14th was largely ceremonial since Crow Holdings’ first 480,000-square-foot flex-space building is nearly complete and should open before September.
Crow Holdings execs promised to ramp-up construction of their two other buildings, another 690,000-square-feet of commercial-industrial flex space. Construction of the second building is to begin this summer; the third to start in 2023.
The buildings are to range in size from 335,000-to 480,000-square feet and each feature 40-foot clear heights. The buildings will have a total of 174 loading dock doors and the site is to have 159 trailer parking spaces.
The mayor and Clark Machemer, a senior managing director for Crow Holdings, applauded the project as a brownfield reclamation success, resulting from a 12-year collaborative effort to rehabilitate this badly contaminated property that American Cyanimide–Cytec Industries once operated.
“This long abandoned brownfield, ravaged by American Cyanimide–Cytec Industries, was a ticking time bomb,” said Reiman, explaining that cooperation led to an environmentally-safe cleanup that made redevelopment possible.
Machemer acknowledged those who contributed to the redevelopment, including Safe Soil Inc, the firm that undertook the enormous site cleanup and capping; Rinaldo M. D’Argenio, who oversaw remediation work for Rahway Arch Properties LLC, the site’s former owner; Parsippany attorney Paul M. Weiner; and officials with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
“These gentlemen took a very contaminated site and understood the possibilities of (where) we are sitting at and standing at today,” said Machemer last week, praising borough officials for making Carteret a welcoming destination for logistics businesses.
“A project like this requires vision and fortitude traits shared by Carteret, the DEP, Rahway Arch and Soil Safe. We, at Crow Holdings, are privileged to be part of the culmination of well over 10 years of planning, public policymaking, remediation and problem-solving,” sad Machemer.
Rahway Arch was created, with Carteret’s cooperation, as limited liability entity for sole purpose of cleaning up and planning this site’s redevelopment. Rahway Arch sold the property to Crow Holdings in 2021.
“This project stand as a beacon for public/private collaboration … taking an unproductive eyesore and returning it to the public realm (that will generate) tax dollars and employment,” Machemer said.
