On Tuesday, July 7 at 4 PM, Camden City Council is voting on a resolution that would allow EMR, the scrap metal facility currently being sued by the NJ Attorney General's Office for over a dozen heavily polluting fires in the past five years, to reopen. This resolution would let EMR resume operations, exposing the public to the danger of additional fires poisoning the air in the city and county. Residents of the Waterfront South neighborhood, where EMR is sited, face disproportionately high levels of asthma. And Camden County as a whole faces failing air quality scores and EMR is a major part of the problem.

Just before the June primary election, the Camden County Commissioners joined in a statement with Camden City Council Members and the 5th district legislators Senator Nilsa Cruz-Perez and Assemblymen Bill Moen and Bill Spearman, saying the facility should be shut down as a health hazard. It’s now clear that was mere political theater on the part of state, county, and city electeds, designed to get them votes, while failing to take actual measures to mitigate the problem in a meaningful way. This July 7th resolution does what every other negotiation with EMR before has done: entirely excludes the public from having a voice and puts the public at enormous risk.

EMR’s operations are unquestionably a public health hazard. The city politicians’ rushed deal with EMR, over a holiday weekend when people are less likely to be paying attention, is a betrayal of the public trust as it once again entirely excludes those impacted. EMR needs to stay shuttered in the interest of remediating health outcomes in the city, improving air quality countywide, and redressing environmental injustice in South Jersey.

Join us in calling on our elected officials to do the right thing and keep EMR closed.