By Greg Remaud • Executive Director, NY/NJ Baykeeper
A recent NJ.com story citing a large number of cancer cases among residents near the Aeromarine landfill (officially, Keyport Sanitary Landfill) renewed focus on risks posed by toxins leaching from it. While alarming, we await investigations by the appropriate agencies to determine if there are any links between local cancer rates and this site.
What is not in question is the long-standing ooze of contamination from the landfill into Raritan Bay and the authorities’ failure to stop it.
“For over 50 years, this community has lived in the shadow of an improperly sealed toxic dump that continues to leach carcinogens into the soil, groundwater, and our precious local waterways. Keyport residents have waited decades for environmental justice. We can no longer allow corporate negligence to compromise the health of this community and the Raritan Bay,” said Taylor McFarland, conservation program manager for the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club. McFarland is a resident of Keyport. Sierra Club is working with NY/NJ Baykeeper to address this issue.
The site was originally home to the Aeromarine Plane & Boat Company. That company disappeared and the site became a municipal and industrial dump, from about the 1940s to the 1970s. It later became the Aeromarine Industrial Park, which is no longer in operation.
Unsealed Toxic Dump
For decades the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Borough of Keyport, Monmouth County Health Department, and other authorities have known that the landfill, owned by Bay Ridge Realty, was never properly sealed and that toxic substances have seeped into Raritan Bay and potentially into nearby neighborhoods. Monitoring wells and soil borings on site confirm elevated levels of hazardous contaminants, including heavy metals, benzene, vinyl chloride, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)—all substances with well-documented health risks.
Despite this knowledge, daily life has proceeded as if nothing were wrong. People catch and eat fish and crabs and wade in waters adjacent to the site—there are no warning signs. Worse, there have been no studies to determine how far contamination has spread along the shoreline or into residential areas. Basic public-health responsibilities have been simply ignored.
In 2024, Baykeeper documented and reported multiple environmental violations at the former Aeromarine property. Subsequent investigation by the DEP revealed elevated levels of arsenic consistent with slag and other industrial byproduct material. This drew major media attention.
However, this did not elicit widespread concern, but it did enter us into discussions with the DEP. The agency’s longstanding lack of enforcement of violations at this landfill, and many others, is shameful. It stems from personnel reductions, regulatory loopholes that limit the monitoring of unclosed landfills, and a shift away from natural resource protection to business efficiency.
To their credit, then DEP commissioner Shawn LaTourette and chief of enforcement Kim Cahall responded swiftly and directly to address the problem.
An initial, paltry $15,000 fine levied on Bay Ridge Realty in 2021 was followed by subsequent fines that now amount to $891,000, and these got the owner to talk with DEP about solutions. Bay Ridge Realty has challenged the fines in court. The next step is for the town to present a viable plan for the property.
Understanding how the situation developed is essential to avoiding past mistakes and achieving a positive outcome.
In the early 2000s, the town of Keyport secured a brownfield redevelopment designation to facilitate cleanup and site redevelopment. However, over time all developers withdrew when confronted with the true cost of remediation and rebuilding there.
The landfill continued leaking. So, in 2021, then mayor Collette Kennedy led the borough to sue Bay Ridge Realty to force the proper landfill closure. But courts held that DEP had primary authority to address the problem. Understandably, the town drew back.
That’s when Baykeeper intensified its legal activity and field investigations of the Aeromarine property to expose violations and have them resolved.
It should not have required years of pressure—or the specter of a possible cancer cluster—to prompt action, but there is now a chance to finally close the landfill properly so Keyport residents and all who fish Raritan Bay finally receive the protection they deserve.
What is needed is a transparent, unified effort by the borough council to create a plan that is technically feasible, financially viable, and safe from political cycles.
If not, the alternative is decades more toxic exposure, continued health risks, and damage to fish and marine life and the reputation of Keyport.
If past lessons are heeded and a thoughtful, cohesive plan comes forth, it could, and should, result in a fully capped landfill, remediated industrial land, a waterfront park, and tax ratables for the town in the quickest possible way.