Of the 10 people who spoke during the public comment section of Thursday’s meeting about EMR, four called on the city to shut down the company’s Camden facilities permanently and five others testified about the company’s negative impact on the neighborhood or urged the city to regulate the company more stringently.
“It’s not enough to shut down EMR for a short time,” said Roy Jones, a Camden resident and longtime environmental justice activist. He said the company endangers the health of nearby residents with diesel exhaust and other air pollution.
Dwane Williams, a resident of the Stockton neighborhood of East Camden, disagreed. He said with multiple industrial facilities in Waterfront South, “targeting EMR” is not the solution to environmental issues in the neighborhood.
“I definitely don’t believe the answer to this is shutting down EMR,” he said.
Waterfront South resident Aliyia Jones said City Council’s action Thursday was not cause for celebration, since residents have called for EMR to shut down after previous fires.
“Too little, too late,” she said.
EMR employs 535 people across five facilities and its corporate headquarters in Camden, 191 of whom are city residents, according to the company. Last week, EMR employees rallied outside of Camden City Hall to protest Mayor Victor Carstarphen’s calls for state and federal government agencies to shut down the company’s facility. Employees said that union jobs, particularly for people who’ve been incarcerated, would be lost.
In a letter to the mayor following his calls to close the scrap metal shredder, EMR USA CEO Joe Balzano said that “being a good neighbor” and operating safely is an “essential priority” for the company. Following the city’s cease-operations order last week, Balzano told WHYY News that he hoped to meet with city officials to resolve the issue.
“We value our place in the city of Camden and want to work for resolution, as opposed to in opposition of each other,” Balzano said.
City Councilmember Arthur Barclay, who represents the Waterfront South neighborhood and joined the calls for EMR’s facility to be shut down late last month, said after Thursday’s meeting that he would support permanent closure of EMR’s facility, but did not specify how City Council could impose that.
“We’re going to explore every option,” Barclay said. “At the end of the day, it’s going to be the mayor and the administration’s decision, but … my one vote on council, I would love for them to permanently go.”