Joseph Wallace is accused of running an illegal dumping operation
For years he dumped. Now he’s been ordered to clean up his mess.
A state Superior Court judge in Morristown ordered Monday that Joseph Wallace — the man who spent years building a seven-story-tall mountain of dirt and debris on his property in a quiet residential neighborhood in Vernon Township — to halt work and remediate the site.
Citing “clear and convincing evidence of irreparable harm,” Judge Maritza Berdote Byrne ordered Wallace to immediately halt the importation of all material to his property, turn over information about what exactly is in the pile and clean up any material that is considered solid waste.
“Our efforts to tackle the 75-foot soil pile in Vernon are part of our overall commitment to dropping the hammer on polluters across the state,” New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said.
“Today, we welcome the court order prohibiting the owner from receiving new material, and requiring the owner to test the site and remove all solid waste materials on that property. This is a positive step for the state and the residents of Vernon.”
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Since at least 2011, Wallace has had dump trucks bringing material from mostly unknown sources to his property on Silver Spruce Drive, a private road in a quiet residential neighborhood. NJ Advance Media detailed the activity in an in-depth report published in February.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection took Wallace to court after determining in February that he used his property to run an illegal solid waste facility. A consent order with Wallace allowed state officials to come onto the property and test the pile in March.
Results of that testing, released in April, showed the pile to contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs,) polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the pesticide chemical chlordane all at levels above the state’s standard for residential soil.
