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.\n<\/p>\n
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.\n<\/p>\n
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\u2019s fire safety procedures.\n<\/p>\n
City Council Vice President Arthur Barclay, who represents the Waterfront South neighborhood, said during Tuesday\u2019s 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.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cWe must demand more,\u201d Barclay said. \u201cEMR, they have to go. I\u2019m standing on that.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Barbara Coscarello, a resident of Camden\u2019s Fairview neighborhood, asked City Council what would happen next to EMR\u2019s shredder if the city rejected the settlement.\n<\/p>\n
City business administrator Timothy Cunningham said a lawyer representing the city will tell the New Jersey Superior Court judge presiding over EMR\u2019s 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\u2019s license, Cunningham said.\n<\/p>\n
Barclay said after the meeting that if the judge vacates the city\u2019s suspension of EMR\u2019s license, he would push the city to appeal.\n<\/p>\n
Waterfront South resident Kristin Schrum, who wants EMR to leave Camden altogether, said she had \u201cmixed feelings\u201d about the proposed settlement and questioned why it did not require full enclosure of the metal shredder.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen is resident input going to be truly put into these decisions?\u201d she said. \u201cWhen is the person that writes them up going to ask us and not just ask different nonprofits and things like that that represent us?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
After the meeting, Schrum said she was still left wondering what will happen next at EMR\u2019s facility.\n<\/p>\n
EMR USA General Counsel Michael Gross declined to comment.\n<\/p>\n
Kareem Anderson, a senior operational manager at EMR\u2019s 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.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take the necessary precautions to make it safe [so] we won\u2019t have these fires,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cBut we can\u2019t control what comes to us.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11573],"tags":[11764,8766,24232,24230,2598,1105,24231,4123,12931],"class_list":["post-34194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philadelphia-breaking-news","tag-camden","tag-council","tag-emr","tag-environmental-impacts-of-a-scrapyard-loom-in-camden","tag-fires","tag-rejects","tag-scrapyard","tag-settlement","tag-whyy-news-climate-desk"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",0,0,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",0,0,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",0,0,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",300,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",2048,2048,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",370,265,false],"kava-thumb-s":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",150,85,false],"kava-thumb-s-2":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",230,230,false],"kava-thumb-m":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",400,400,false],"kava-thumb-m-vertical":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",370,500,false],"kava-thumb-m-2":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",570,450,false],"kava-thumb-l":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",1170,650,false],"kava-thumb-xl":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",1920,1080,false],"kava-thumb-masonry":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",600,999,false],"kava-thumb-justify":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",640,640,false],"kava-thumb-justify-2":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-29-2026-k-paynter-EMR-fire-2.jpg",1280,640,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"#RiseCelestialStudios","author_link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/author\/ralph-c\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Philadelphia Viral News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"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. 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