40K solar panels unveiled at former South Brunswick Superfund site

Alexandra Antonucci, Editorial Intern
Published 3:58 p.m. ET July 17, 2018

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A Mountainside man is biking across the United States to raise money for cancer research.
~Courtesy of Nathaniel Butler

SOUTH BRUNSWICK – Republic Services and New Jersey Resources Clean Energy Venture (CEV) unveiled 40,000 solar panels in the township on Tuesday.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the occasion, atop the site of the closed landfill at 175 New Road.

The panels are owned, operated and maintained by CEV, the renewable energy subsidiary of New Jersey Resources. The project took roughly five years and will promote green energy and reduce emissions, all while utilizing an open space. 

Attendees included Loan Mansey, Northeast area president of Republic Services; Mark Valori, vice president of New Jersey Resources CEV; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Walter Mugdan and South Brunswick Mayor Charles Carley;  

“It’s a great day for South Brunswick,” Carley said. “It’s a significant investment, and we’re happy that you made that investment in our town.”

The site was a landfill from 1959 to 1979. From 1982 to 1985, it underwent remediation to rid the area of any hazardous materials. Since then, the Superfund site’s 68 acres of land have remained unused.

There were various proposals through the years on how to use the property, but Mugdan believes that this option was one of “the very, very best things that you can do with a closed landfill.”

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“That takes dedication, it takes focus and we’re really just delighted that you have done that,” Mugdan said, addressing the crowd. “EPA  very, very strongly supports the reuse of Superfund sites like this one. We think it’s an important part of the overall cleanup process.”

The $20 million project was built through unionized labor and funded by New Jersey Resources with no cost to taxpayers.

“The construction of this project put a lot of people to work, there will be a lot of people that continue to work here,” said Carley. “We’re putting a lot of energy back in the grid, clean energy. There won’t be a carbon footprint. There won’t be foreign energy, it’ll be ours.”

As Mansey stated, Republic Services is committed to the “residents and business of South Brunswick and the surrounding communities.

“As you look at the site today, you can see that we’ve made a significant investment to preserve the local community which we, at Republic Services, calls affectionately ‘our blue planet,'” he said. “For this generation and future generations to come.”

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