By Jon “Ferris” Meredith Tap Into Wayne May 16, 2024
WAYNE, NJ – Over the past three township council meetings, Mayor Chris Vergano has updated council members and the public about the difficult situation at the old Topsoil Depot – now run by a company called XRDS Recycling, LLC. The company accepts topsoil, piles it up so that it towers over Pompton Plains Crossroad in Wayne Township, processes it and resells the dirt. According to Vergano, this operation is run against township, state and Department of Environmental Protection regulations and fines are piling up, with about $250,000 in violations handed out by Wayne Township alone.
RELATED STORY: Wayne Mayor Talks ‘Mountain’ of Dirt at Depot on Pompton Plains Crossroad
But what made the mayor call this a “public health and safety emergency” is the fact that this pile of dirt is sitting on top of a buried “aqueduct” which is the source of Wayne Township’s (and many other town’s) drinking water. This aqueduct lets the water flow from the Wanaque Reservoir down into Wayne Township and through its water filtration system before it flows out of your tap.
Vergano had met with the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission (NJDWSC) and reported that they “are very concerned” about this.
“If there’s a problem where that [water] line is broken, they can’t even get to it because of the dirt,” said Vergano.
The NJDWSC along with the Township of Wayne filed a motion “to enforce litigants rights against XRDS Recycling, LLC, XRDS Management LLC, Cory Weissglass and William Rosa (“Defendants”) for failing to comply with the Court’s November 21, 2023 Consent Order and the Court’s March 19, 2024 Order to Enforce the Consent Order.”
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