Bring Commissioners to Trenton in June, Senator Urges

Senator Kevin O'Toole, R-District 40, made the following statement about the Meadowlands Commission's long-overdue realization that EnCap will never fulfill its promise to develop 785 acres of garbage dumps in Bergen County:

"The Meadowlands Commission was legally and honor-bound to ensure that EnCap acted in the interest of the public. Instead, over eight long years, the commission let this shadowy company put taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars it may never repay, for a project it will never complete.

"Worst of all, this colossal failure at oversight has left huge garbage dumps in the middle Bergen County that aren't properly capped and, therefore, remain a threat to the environment of everyone who lives nearby.

"I am asking in a letter that Senate President Codey schedule hearings before the full Senate, and that Senator Barbara Buono, chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, schedule hearings before her committee immediately after the budget is passed in June to hear testimony from commissioners and others involved in the EnCap debacle. We should demand answers from commissioners to the following questions:

The state selected EnCap in 2000 to cap landfills. Instead, the Star-Ledger of Newark reports that the state may have to pay $125 million to properly cap the sites. What caused the failure in environmental oversight?

EnCap said it had the financial means to build its projects. Instead, the state is on the hook for at least $51 million of loans that it granted to EnCap without proper guarantees. Now that EnCap has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the state may be on the hook for as much as $125 million. Where was the fiscal oversight?

EnCap was supposed to turn these landfills into a golf course, hotels and homes. Instead, the land may remain as landfills for many more years as this debacle is sorted out in court and a new developer is found at unknown cost to the state. Why couldn't the commission protect the community?

"It isn't enough to blame the problems with this project on EnCap Golf Holdings. The taxpayers expect our government to be fierce and unrelenting when looking after their interests. Commissioners need to come to Trenton and explain how the EnCap debacle occurred, and advise us on how to ensure such a travesty never happens again. And most importantly, where do we go from here?"