The proposed settlement agreement, announced by the city on social media last week, lays out a phased reopening for the shredder, allowing the company to restart it for training purposes as early as July 8 and fully resume normal operations as early as July 18.
The agreement would have required EMR to submit several standard operating procedures to the city and implement operational changes, including maintaining a 24/7 permanent fire watch at the facility, reducing the height of the scrap metal pile heading into the shredder and using handheld thermal imaging cameras to screen incoming material for batteries.
Many of the requirements in the settlement reflect recommendations of a contractor hired by EMR in the wake of the May 29 fire to review EMR’s fire safety procedures.
City Council Vice President Arthur Barclay, who represents the Waterfront South neighborhood, said during Tuesday’s meeting he initially supported the settlement, then changed his mind after meeting with constituents. He said the agreement did not include appropriate oversight by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
“We must demand more,” Barclay said. “EMR, they have to go. I’m standing on that.”
Barbara Coscarello, a resident of Camden’s Fairview neighborhood, asked City Council what would happen next to EMR’s shredder if the city rejected the settlement.
City business administrator Timothy Cunningham said a lawyer representing the city will tell the New Jersey Superior Court judge presiding over EMR’s lawsuit that the city was unable to reach a settlement agreement with the company. The judge will then consider a motion to stop the city from enforcing its suspension of EMR’s license, Cunningham said.
Barclay said after the meeting that if the judge vacates the city’s suspension of EMR’s license, he would push the city to appeal.
Waterfront South resident Kristin Schrum, who wants EMR to leave Camden altogether, said she had “mixed feelings” about the proposed settlement and questioned why it did not require full enclosure of the metal shredder.
“When is resident input going to be truly put into these decisions?” she said. “When is the person that writes them up going to ask us and not just ask different nonprofits and things like that that represent us?”
After the meeting, Schrum said she was still left wondering what will happen next at EMR’s facility.
EMR USA General Counsel Michael Gross declined to comment.
Kareem Anderson, a senior operational manager at EMR’s My Auto Store site in Camden who organized an employee rally last month, apologized for the situation and asked City Council to work with EMR. He said the real problem is flammable lithium-ion batteries in the scrap metal that comes to EMR.
“We take the necessary precautions to make it safe [so] we won’t have these fires,” Anderson said. “But we can’t control what comes to us.”
