June 30, 2017 – Soil Safe, Inc., a recycling company for which Rich & Henderson acts as general counsel, successfully defended a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act’s (“RCRA”) citizen suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey Camden in 2014 by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network (“DRN”). Tim Henderson worked closely with trial counsel Chris Gibson and Patrick Flynn, both with the New Jersey firm, Archer, on the strategy and preparation of the defense. Judge Bumb presided over a four day bench trial in March, 2017. On June 30, she issued the decision which found in favor of Soil Safe on all counts.
In rejecting DRN’s claims, Judge Bumb determined that Soil Safe’s petroleum-contaminated soil recycling operations created legitimate products and not solid waste, that Soil Safe’s operations create remedial capping and structural fill products which are used as intended to turn property filled with dredge spoil into useable land, e.g., for a county park, an equestrian park and construction of buildings for industrial/ commercial operations, and that the DRN introduced no credible evidence that the Soil Safe product created an imminent and substantial threat to the environment.
The decision provides important guidance for navigating what Judge Bumb refers to as the ‘dense, turgid, and circuitous,'” RCRA framework that governs the distinction between proper recycling and discarding of nonhazardous secondary materials. Consistent with the rulings of a number of federal cases she cites, Judge Bumb concludes that “material being used for its intended purpose is not being ‘discarded,'” and, therefore, is not a solid waste.
For more information, please contact Tim Henderson at thenderson@richlaw.com or 410-267-5900.