(North Bergen) North Bergen’s citizen’s watchdog group is calling on the Commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection to step in immediately to investigate operations at Eagle Recycling, whose has facilities on 47th Street and Dell Avenue and 27^th Street and West Side Avenue, in North Bergen, has been cited for many violations of Federal, State, and OSHA laws.

A local cable television channel yesterday reported on the friable asbestos in the air surrounding residential neighborhoods near Eagle Recycling. Neighbors have complained of health problems for several years, including asthma, caused by the recycling operation. Friable Asbestos and fibrous dust has blanketed North Bergen and surrounding municipalities.

“This company has been a danger to the community for many years, but Mayor Nick Sacco has done nothing to stop it, and has helped and enabled them to continue” said Larry Wainstein, a community activist and NBCCG member. “Eagle Recycling needs to be shut down for the sake of the health, welfare, and safety of the residents of Hudson County.”

Wainstein says Eagle has bought the silence and protection of Mayor Sacco, who is also a state senator.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6CW59fyBWM

Wainstein said Sacco and his administration have turned a blind eye toward Eagle because the company and its parent firm, Lieze Associates and business associates, have donated tens of thousands of dollars either directly or indirectly to Sacco’s campaign accounts or to the Hudson County Democratic Organization, according to HudsonCountyTV.com, state records, and other media reports.

“We have no choice but to turn directly to the state DEP and Gov. Christie to protect the community’s health,” said Wainstein. Mayor Sacco won’t do it. He has failed to protect the health, welfare, and safety of the people of Hudson County.”

The NBCCG first raised concerns about company in the spring of 2011, when it was learned that Eagle and its parent company Lieze Associates, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Utica, N.Y., to conspiring to violate the Clean Water Act and to defraud the government. The company was found to have dumped asbestos illegally on an upstate New York farm, that was generated at the North Bergen Facilities.

Eagle Recycling agreed to pay a criminal fine of $500,000, to implement an environmental compliance plan at its North Bergen facility, and to pay restitution that could include cleanup costs at a farmer's property in Frankfort, N.Y. that was used as a dump site.

We hope that the state will not ignore us. What’s going on in North Bergen is criminal and an environmental atrocity,” said Wainstein, who also noted the NBCCG is seeking to enlist the help of state environmental groups. Friable asbestos is killing people in North Hudson. This is one of the main reasons that North Hudson has one of the highest cancer rates, due to recent studies by various environmental groups.