ISSUES

Environmental
Health

Healthy environmental conditions are essential to improving the quality of life in our community. The East Trenton neighborhood faces several environmental health issues, but the East Trenton Collaborative and East Trenton residents are dedicated to working to address them to create a safer, healthier environment for our community.

The Environmental Safety Community Organizing Committee (ESCOC) is a resident-led committee established in March 2020. Its mission is to work with city, county, and state officials to reduce contaminants affecting the East Trenton neighborhood. 

ESCOC meets regularly to work towards the following goals:

• Address the lead in our soil and water.

• Address hazardous oils and waste from businesses.

• Strategize remediation of Brownfields sites in the neighborhood.

• Clean up illegal dumping and hold dumpers accountable.

• Address contaminated water from combined sewer and stormwater management.

• Improve education and enforcement on environmental safety challenges.

ESCOC collaborates with several organizations and public agencies here in Trenton and beyond, including the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Isles.

ESCOC is composed of seven East Trenton residents and is looking to grow! If you are interested in joining, contact Shereyl.

Our Progress So Far

The Environmental Safety Community Organizing Committee has been hard at work addressing environmental health issues in the East Trenton community.

amtico square cleanup

ESCOC formed after NJDEP Commissioner Catherine McCabe participated in a listening session at the East Trenton Center on October 29, 2019. At this listening session, East Trenton residents asked what she planned to do about the illegal dumping taking place in Trenton, particularly at Amtico Square. Following this discussion, the NJDEP joined forces with United by Blue and the East Trenton Collaborative to clean up Amtico Square in February 2020. This site, once a livestock facility for the Taylor Pork Roll Factory dating to 1890, had become a vacant lot filled with tires, trash, bricks, and other waste and contaminants. ESCOC hopes to continue to build our relationships with NJDEP and other community partners to keep the site clean and move forward to redevelop it for positive community use.

East Trenton Brownfields Area-Wide Plan Completed

At our June 2020 Community Meeting, Isles presented the recently completed East Trenton Neighborhood Brownfields Area-Wide Plan (BF AWP). This plan provides an inventory of Brownfields sites in the neighborhood and recommendations for addressing them developed with resident input. It zeroes in specifically on proposals for recreational complexes on two Brownfields sites considered to have transformative potential, Amtico Square and the 104 Taylor Street site. The plan includes conceptual plans for the two sites, which include installation of a skatepark, roller court, street soccer court, and tennis/basketball/volleyball hybrid courts at Amtico Square, and a soccer field, track, flex field, workout area, and pavilion at 104 Taylor Street. These projects will take time to bring to fruition, but we are excited to continue to partner with Isles and the City to bring life back to these and other Brownfields sites in our neighborhood.

You can view this plan here.

At our June 2022 Community Meeting, ETC hosted a follow-up presentation regarding the Brownfield sites, particularly the Amtico Square Project, where individuals from Brownfield Redevelopment Solutions reviewed the official proposed design and asked residents for input regarding improvement or additions to the current project design. We are happy to see this project continue to move forward in development and are excited to continue working towards the revitalization of these spaces with the city and other community organizations.

east trenton walking tour

On Saturday, June 6th, in collaboration with the Civic Engagement Community Organizing Committee, the Traffic Safety Community Organizing Committee, and other East Trenton residents, ESCOC participated in a walking tour of the East Trenton neighborhood with Mayor Gusciora to bring awareness to illegal dumping happening in the community. Since this walking tour, the Trenton Director of Public Works Mr. Wally Onitri has been working closely with residents to address environmental concerns in the neighborhood. One ESCOC member, Kathy Bellamy, works closely with the city to have garbage pails, trash bags, and brooms dropped off on her street to organize bi-weekly community clean-ups.

lead contamination

ESCOC is currently in touch with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to discuss a strategy to identify the source of the high levels of lead found in the soil in the East Trenton neighborhood. The EPA has measured over 400 parts per million (ppm) lead levels in the soil, which are high enough for federal and state agencies to consider a target for cleanup. Unfortunately, this can only happen if the source of the contamination is identified and can be held responsible for the cost. The contamination was once thought to be caused by a company that operated as a solder manufacturing site on Klagg Avenue from 1950-1980, but soil sampling performed in 2018 showed that the soil contamination was not caused by that source.  We are hopeful that by working with the EPA and NJDEP, the source of the lead contamination can be identified and it can be cleaned up. 

Lead in the water is also a concern of the ESCOC committee. At its October 2020 meeting, committee members heard from representatives from Trenton Water Works and Clean Water Action of New Jersey about the status of Trenton’s lead line replacement program. And in both 2021 and again in 2022, ESCOC hosted Lead Listening sessions, which disseminated information about the dangers of lead at the micro and city-wide level and provided residents a space to voice concerns about contamination in the community. These sessions also often hosted presenters, with some examples being Kristin Epstein (TWW Assistant Director of Utilities) and Kareem Adeem (Director of Newark Water and Sewage Department).

Since then, the Environmental Safety Committee has worked closely with the DEP, EPA, Trenton Water Works, and Lead-Free NJ to improve water quality in the neighborhood. In 2021, ETC established the Lead Service Line Replacement Program to provide grants to help East Trenton residents with the cost of replacing lead pipes, and this program remained active through 2022. Before this grant program, 18% of East Trenton owner-occupied households had registered for Lead Service Line replacements. After offering the program, the number of registered owner-occupied properties registered for replacements increased to 65%.

The ESCOC has other goals they want to work to accomplish as well. If you are interested in getting involved with these or other projects, contact Sheryl.