Senior community in Absecon, NJ, sues to close stinky ACUA landfill

An Absecon 55 & older housing community has filed suit in federal court to have the Atlantic County Utilities Authority’s landfill in Egg Harbor Township closed, saying they are tired of the odors and are concerned that it may be making them ill.

The residents of Bel Aire Lakes have had enough of the bad smell from the Atlantic County landfill which they say gives off an almost constant four odor that makes spending time outdoors impossible and exposes them to high levels of hydrogen sulfide, causing persistent nausea and breathing issues.

According to reporting in the Philadelphia Inquirer, 65 current and former homeowners in the retirement community have joined the lawsuit filed last month in U.S. District Court in Camden seeking to stop operations at the landfill.

What the Lawsuit Alleges

The lawsuit says that since 2014, the landfill’s gases have frequently produced strong odors of rotten eggs and feces in the retirement community, often at night, “when the landfill disposes of its putrescible waste.”

The suit contests that some homes in the housing community are only about 250 feet away from the landfill and the smell is so constantly bad that it has made it unpleasant to live in their homes and impossible to sell them.

“On hundreds of days and nights over the past 10 years, continuing to the present day, the BAL Residents are overwhelmed by malodorous H2S gas emitted by the landfill,” the lawsuit states.

Residents say the smell has caused them to experience health issues ranging from nausea and vomiting to respiratory irritation, difficulty sleeping, and depression.

The Bel Aire Lakes residents estimate that those living near the landfill have filed around 1,100 complaints with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in the last decade but nothing has been done.

The residents insist that the emissions and odor issues have increased.

Authorities at the Egg Harbor Township landfill said in a statement that it is “highly regulated” by not only the NJDEP but also the Atlantic County Department of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Its operations, the authority added, “are fully transparent.”

The ACUA and its counsel intend to vigorously defend against these accusations in court by using facts and evidence, not false and sensationalist allegations. The ACUA remains committed to providing the highest quality waste management services to our community.

The hearing in the case is scheduled for Friday, June 17.