Citizens Group Files Claim Against Bernards Township For Allegedly Violating Its Own Ordinance

Bernards Citizens for a Safe and Clean Quarry filed a claim against Bernards Township on Friday June 13, 2014, to set aside the Township’s Resolution #2014-0186, approving a settlement with Millington Quarry, Inc. (“MQI”). The claim alleges that members of the Township Committee illegally ignored the plain language of its own “Anti-Fill Ordinance” prohibiting the importation of fill indefinitely unless both the Township Committee and the Planning Board approve lifting the ban.

The Planning Board, after conducting extensive hearings over two years, rejected MQI’s request to lift the ban. 

On behalf of the citizens of Bernards Township, we were forced to file a lawsuit against our Township to protect our rights, including the right to enjoy the peace and quiet offered in our community and to be safe from truck traffic in our neighborhoods. Under the unlawfully-entered Settlement Agreement and Release, the Anti-Fill Ordinance’s fill ban is being lifted to allow importation of another 300,000 cubic yards of soil until January 31, 2017, with an option for additional 52,000 cubic yards.

This means an incredibly large amount of truck traffic through densely populated residential neighborhoods, six-days per week, up to 225 trucks on any single day, and 3,000 trucks per calendar month.

The Planning Board did not, and has not, approved lifting the ban to allow such truck traffic because MQI is and continues to be unreasonable and uncooperative. MQI wants fill imported into our Township because it makes money by the truck load. The more trucks dumping fill, the more money. 

MQI is a supposed to be a quarry, not a dump. MQI does not want to even consider complying with their obligation to rehabilitate the quarry by using only on-site materials, or by changing their soil specification to include sand.

We, the citizens of Bernards Township, have the right to be heard at Planning Board hearings on whether no more trucks at all are needed because enough on-site materials exist. The Township Committee denied us our rights and we are fighting back. Please join us in the fight. We can be reached at http://bernards-citizens.wix.com/nofill .