Camden City Council rejects settlement with scrapyard operator EMR

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): An embattled scrap metal shredder in Camden must remain paused under a cease operations order, after Camden City Council rejected a settlement agreement with EMR, the multinational scrap metal recycling company that runs the facility and four others in the city.

Council unanimously voted against the proposed settlement that would have resolved a lawsuit EMR filed against the city last month, after it suspended the company’s junkyard license in response to a two-alarm fire at the metal shredding facility in the Waterfront South neighborhood. The settlement agreement would have outlined a phased reopening for the shredder, starting as early as this week.

Councilmember Sheila Davis apologized to residents of Waterfront South and said EMR has had more than “three strikes.”

“I stand with the residents,” she said. “Environmental injustice has been done on this city for far too long, not only with EMR, but with other facilities in this city.”

EMR’s five facilities in Camden purchase, disassemble, shred and ship out scrap metal for remelting into steel. The sites, located in the predominantly Black and Hispanic Waterfront South neighborhood, have had over a dozen fires since 2020, according to the New Jersey  Office of the Attorney General. Some of these fires have driven nearby residents to evacuate their homes, caused acute health symptoms and left some residents with lingering psychological impacts. A potential class action lawsuit by three Camden residents accuses the company of “noxious emissions” that interfere with residents’ use of their properties.

After the latest fire at the shredder facility May 29, Camden city leaders called for county, state and federal agencies to shut down the facility. Days later, the city suspended the site’s junkyard license and ordered it to cease operations.

EMR then sued the city, calling the license suspension “groundless” and saying it had occurred “without notice, a hearing, an opportunity [for the company] to be heard.” The company argued the suspension had cost it $10 million in lost revenue over the span of less than two weeks and would necessitate layoffs. EMR employs over 500 people in Camden, including at its U.S. corporate headquarters. Close to 200 of these employees live in Camden.

The proposed settlement agreement, announced by the city on social media last week, lays out a phased reopening for the shredder, allowing the company to restart it for training purposes as early as July 8 and fully resume normal operations as early as July 18.

The agreement would have required EMR to submit several standard operating procedures to the city and implement operational changes, including maintaining a 24/7 permanent fire watch at the facility, reducing the height of the scrap metal pile heading into the shredder and using handheld thermal imaging cameras to screen incoming material for batteries.

Many of the requirements in the settlement reflect recommendations of a contractor hired by EMR in the wake of the May 29 fire to review EMR’s fire safety procedures.

City Council Vice President Arthur Barclay, who represents the Waterfront South neighborhood, said during Tuesday’s meeting he initially supported the settlement, then changed his mind after meeting with constituents. He said the agreement did not include appropriate oversight by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

“We must demand more,” Barclay said. “EMR, they have to go. I’m standing on that.”

Barbara Coscarello, a resident of Camden’s Fairview neighborhood, asked City Council what would happen next to EMR’s shredder if the city rejected the settlement.

City business administrator Timothy Cunningham said a lawyer representing the city will tell the New Jersey Superior Court judge presiding over EMR’s lawsuit that the city was unable to reach a settlement agreement with the company. The judge will then consider a motion to stop the city from enforcing its suspension of EMR’s license, Cunningham said.

Barclay said after the meeting that if the judge vacates the city’s suspension of EMR’s license, he would push the city to appeal.

Waterfront South resident Kristin Schrum, who wants EMR to leave Camden altogether, said she had “mixed feelings” about the proposed settlement and questioned why it did not require full enclosure of the metal shredder.

“When is resident input going to be truly put into these decisions?” she said. “When is the person that writes them up going to ask us and not just ask different nonprofits and things like that that represent us?”

After the meeting, Schrum said she was still left wondering what will happen next at EMR’s facility.

EMR USA General Counsel Michael Gross declined to comment.

Kareem Anderson, a senior operational manager at EMR’s My Auto Store site in Camden who organized an employee rally last month, apologized for the situation and asked City Council to work with EMR. He said the real problem is flammable lithium-ion batteries in the scrap metal that comes to EMR.

“We take the necessary precautions to make it safe [so] we won’t have these fires,” Anderson said. “But we can’t control what comes to us.”

Courtesy: www.whyy.org