Carmine Olivieri has spent a good part of his working life making a living on the two lots that he bought 20 years ago on West Street in Bloomfield.
Out front is the two-family house at 57 West Street that he grabbed in a foreclosure sale, then fixed up so he could rent it out. In the back is the old garage where he runs his auto-detailing business, Classic Car. The rest of the property he leases to ambulances and trucks for parking.
This place is my life and my livelihood, Olivieri said from his garage one recent afternoon, where a 1959 Cadillac convertible hung on a lift over a sporty orange-red Alfa Romeo. And Ive got responsibilities; one kid headed to college next year and another right behind.
But theres something under the ground at Olivieris garage that has turned his life upside down, and now threatens to take away his livelihood: toxic compounds in the soil that have migrated onto his property from the site of the old Bloomfield Gas Works, just down the street.
I feel like Im living a nightmare that I never wake up from, Olivieri said. Some days, I wake up and look in the mirror and say, this is the day that things are going to change.
Twenty years ago, Olivieri took a risk and bought the two lots on West Street, in an old industrial neighborhood that is a stones throw from the Garden State Parkway. His nightmare began a year later, when a stranger came up the driveway while he was working on a car and delivered the news that would change his life.
The stranger was a project manager for PSE&G working on the environmental cleanup of the Bloomfield Gas Works, a natural gas manufacturing plant that burned coal to make fuel for gas lamps and heating systems during the late 1800s and early part of the 20th Century. PSE&G cleaned up the gas works property, but wanted to see if the underground soil contamination had migrated onto Olivieris property.
PSE&G wanted permission to come onto Olivieris property to drill test borings in the soil. Under New Jerseys Brownfield and Site Contamination and Remediation Act, PSE&G was the responsible party for the cleanup, and Olivieri was required to provide reasonable access to his property.
Wary of what they might find, Olivieri let PSE&Gs environmental team onto the property to conduct what he thought would be a couple of test borings. Twenty years later, PSE&G is still drilling holes on the property, poking more than 20 feet below the surface to map out the depth and width of the contamination.
Olivieri estimates that in 20 years hes spent over $100,000 on an environmental consultant to monitor the soil testing and on lawyers and consultants he hired to defend his property rights. But hes afraid that when the cleanup finally begins, it will cost him everything he has: his business, the house he rents, and the parking spaces he leases.
Ive never been opposed to them coming on the property to do the cleanup, Olivieri said. I just want them to make me whole.
Carmine Olivieri pointing to one of the many test borings that PSE&G has drilled outside his garage looking for soil contamination.
New Jerseys Brownfield and Contaminated Site Remediation Act does allow for owners to be compensated for costs associated with any disruption in operations on the property, but the law doesnt spell out which costs. The law leaves it up to property owners and the party responsible for the cleanup to work out a right-of-access agreement to the property before the cleanup begins. Any disputes are settled in Superior Court.
Although Olivieri is fighting his own one-man battle, he is not alone. As of 2022, the states Department of Environmental Protection had counted 14,461 contaminated sites throughout the statetoxic hot spots that range in size from underground storage tanks buried under single-family homes and gas stations to huge abandoned industrial tracts commonly referred to as brownfields.
Although the DEP is responsible for making sure the cleanups get done, it does not get involved in negotiations for right-of-access agreements.
The Brownfield and Contaminated Site Remediation Act requires the responsible party to gain access to the neighboring party to conduct remediation, said Caryn Shinske, a DEP spokeswoman. To that end, DEP encourages property owners to work together and to provide or obtain access to off-site locations for the purpose of conducting remediation when contamination has potentially impacted off-site locations. DEP does not get involved in the access agreement, including any compensation issues or terms of an easement between the responsible party and neighboring property owners.
Olivieri and PSE&G have been trading letters back and forth for years over access, but have failed to reach an agreement. In February, the utility sued Olivieri, and three months later, a Superior Court judge granted PSE&G access to conduct more testing and to draw up a final remediation plan. Once that plan is in place, it will be up to Olivieri, his lawyer, and PSE&G to work out a right-of-access agreement that Olivieri says will either make him or break him.
I dont want to stop them from cleaning up their contamination, Olivieri said. But their cleanup should not come at the expense of my livelihood.
The two lots at 55 and 57 West Street.
PSE&Gs remediation of the Bloomfield Gas Works is one of 36 cleanup projects that the utility is responsible for around the state. According to PSE&G, the utility has finished cleaning 24 of its manufactured gas works sites.
PSE&G would not comment on the specifics of Olivieris case, but through a spokeswoman, said the utility would seek to minimize business disruption.
As this matter is in litigation, we cant comment on its specifics, however, PSE&G evaluates each site on a case-by-case basis and works with property owners to minimize disruption to the property owner and any businesses located at the property, PSE&G spokeswoman Lauren Ugorji said.
My daughter was two years old when this whole thing started, Olivieri said. Now shes headed to college.
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Richard Cowen may be reached at rcowen@njadvancemedia.com.