- Target:
- Ringwood Borough Mayor and Council
- Region:
- United States of America
- Website:
- www.northjersey.com
Important: Please do not sign as anonymous! If you have already signed anonymously and are a Ringwood resident, please edit your signature to reflect your name. That is the only way we can include it in the numbers we need to present the ordinance request to the mayor and council.
For more than 30 years, the Ringwood Mines/Landfill Superfund site has been a blight on the community. Although it was once removed from the EPA's National Priority List, it is the only Superfund in the program's history to be relisted here.
Since being placed on the National Priority List for a second time, more than 47,000 tons of contaminated waste has been removed from the site and new chemical contaminants have been discovered in the groundwater near the site.
Now, as new contaminants are still being found near the site, the Ringwood Borough mayor and council have decided to cap the site as is rather than fully remediate it as the EPA originally recommended. We now demand that our elected officials act according to the will of the people and participate actively in the full remediation of the site.
In accordance with our rights under the Optional Municipal Charter Act (N.J.S.A. 40:69A-1, et seq), we, the people of the borough of Ringwood, NJ, introduce the following ordinance regarding the Ringwood Mines/Landfill Superfund site:
Whereas the EPA’s original recommendations for the Ringwood Mines/Landfill Superfund site called for the complete removal of contaminants AND
Whereas the Ringwood Borough mayor and council have instead requested permission from the EPA to cap the sites instead and construct a new recycling center over them AND
Whereas the Ringwood Mines/Landfill Superfund site is the only site in our nation’s history to be removed from the National Priorities List and then included again after the EPA’s admission that it was still contaminated AND
Whereas the Ringwood Borough mayor and council constitute a governing body elected by the people, for the people of Ringwood Borough AND
Whereas we the people of Ringwood Borough oppose the mayor and council’s plans to cap the site for reasons including but not limited to the environmental and health hazards the heavy metals and chemicals found at the site pose for the community at large and the further environmental injustices it will promote for the Ramapo Lenape Turtle Clan in our community, a group recognized by the EPA as an Environmental Justice community AND
Whereas the EPA is continuing to investigate the extent to which the contaminant 1,4 Dioxane, recently discovered at the site, poses further threats to the environment and to the health of the people of Ringwood Borough, including further environmental injustices to protected groups,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED by the Municipal Council of the Borough of Ringwood, County of Passaic, State of New Jersey as follows:
No facility, present or future, shall be built on or near the Ringwood Superfund site AND
The Ringwood Borough mayor and council will withdraw their request to the EPA to allow the building of the recycling center AND
The Ringwood Borough mayor and council will comply with the EPA’s original assessment of the site and participate actively in the full remediation of the areas collectively known as the Ringwood Mines/Landfill Superfund site.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Fully Remediate The Ringwood Mines/Landfill Superfund Site petition to Ringwood Borough Mayor and Council was written by Lisa Chiang and is in the category Environment at GoPetition.