When Soil Safe is finished, a mound 29 feet high would cover most of this acreage.

The scientific staff at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection examined this proposal, and a number of members came away appalled. They said a flood could erode the Rahway River bank and cause the mound to collapse into the water.

In a 2010 email, an agency scientist noted that this project was “not sustainable” and that “developer/business profit driven motivation” fueled it.

In 2013, another agency expert offered that the proposal was “technically questionable.” Yet another scientist noted that if a flood washed through, the soil mound could collapse and “pose a threat to the environment or to the public health.”

Yes, well, whatever.

The Environmental Protection Department issued a highly unusual conditional approval in May even before it received the engineering studies. “I’ve never seen that move before,” said Debbie Mans, the executive director of the New York/New Jersey Baykeeper, who walked the land with me.

The political moves, by contrast, are classics of the New Jersey genre.

The county political boss here is a Democrat, State Senator Bob Smith. He holds two day jobs: He is chairman of the Senate environment committee, and he oversees a politically connected private law practice. He represented Soil Safe at a hearing before an elected county board, which he more or less dominates through careful oiling of well-financed political action committees.