U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (second from left) stands with other officials on the Staten Island side of the Arthur Kill to denounce a New Jersey waste site project. From the left: Assemblyman Michael Cusick, Schumer, Assemblyman Joe Borelli and Assemblyman Matthew Titone.

(Advance photo: Irving Silverstein)

Does it make any sense whatsoever to cover a toxic waste site within spitting distance of the Arthur Kill in Rahway with millions of tons of soil that is also contaminated?

Only in the board room of a corporation that uses this environmentally suspect method to “cap” toxic waste sites. That’s exactly what Maryland-based EastStar Environmental Group proposes to do at a former American Cyanamid toxic waste site on the Rahway River, just across the Arthur Kill.

With its so-called Rahway Arch Project, the company plans to seal in decades’ worth of toxic waste dumped at the site by “sealing” it with a 29-foot thick cover of dirt that is itself chemically contaminated. (Note that American Cyanamid was permitted to walk away from this polluted site and leave the mess to others, just as it and other large corporations have done elsewhere in the nation1.)

No doubt, EastStar Environmental Group can get this toxic fill at (pardon the pun) dirt-cheap prices, making the $15-million venture that much more profitable for the company.

And — wouldn’t you know it? — the State of New Jersey, in its infinite wisdom, is fine with the whole thing. It seems a sponsor of the project, Soil Safe, has promised to pay millions in fees to the city of Carteret and make hefty payments to the investors who own the land damaged by American Cyanamid’s poisons.

In addition, a portion of the property is owned by the law partner of an influential New Jersey state senator and Soil Safe officials have made sizable donations to the New Jersey State Senate president, Stephen Sweeney, an important ally of the governor.

So eager is the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to get this monstrosity under way that it has issued a conditional approval of the project, even though no formal plan for the project has yet been submitted.

The administration of Gov. Chris Christie is so gung-ho about it, that it has insisted, in the face of common sense and documented history, that future flooding, such as occurred in Sandy, won’t damage the soil cap.

By contrast, there is nothing but outrage on this side of the Arthur Kill, where elected officials and activists recognize the Rahway Arch project’s potential for disaster.

Not only is the toxic waste site on the banks for the Rahway River near the Arthur Kill, but it and the toxic soil that EastStar wants to use to cap it are within a 100-year-flood plan.

Sandy thoroughly inundated the site. If we get another storm of that magnitude, a lot of that poisonous dirt will wash into the Arthur Kill and onto the shoreline along it as well as along the Raritan Bay. Staten Island officials, led by Assemblyman Joseph Borelli who first sounded the alarm, have denounced the project since it came on their radar.

Of course, Staten Island officials have protested in vain before whenever New Jersey tries to inflict some new environmental atrocity on Staten Island, but the Garden State’s heavy political hitters have frequently tipped the scales against them

Now Staten Island has brought in its own big gun. Sen. Charles Schumer, responding to calls from this borough to intercede, visited Staten Island the other day to stand with Mr. Borelli, Assemblyman Michael Cusick and Assemblyman Matthew Titone on the shoreline of the Arthur Kill in Tottenville and call attention to this misbegotten plan.

“After Sandy, we’ve made a point of rebuilding smarter and better than before,” the senator said. “This project does not meet that standard.”

He added, “God forbid another storm comes our way. The last thing we need is a toxic mess on Staten Island’s shoreline.”

Mr. Schumer rightly said that Arch project would effectively establish a chemical waste repository along the Rahway River, which flows directly into the Arthur Kill.

These officials called on the Army Corps of Engineers and the federal Environmental Protection Agency to require that the project go through a permit review under the Clean Water Act.

That leads us to ask why, oh why, Rahway Arch was not required to go through such a thorough review in the first place, considering its impact and its proximity to waterways?

Mr. Schumer said that if these federal agencies fail to scuttle the plan, it “could be a dereliction of duty.”

We agree. In fact, we’d like to hear the Army Corps and the EPA explain how this half-baked plan got so far in the first place.