ShopRite will be responsible for the construction of the addition to its store. Its liquor store will be expanded and relocated to the new nearby building. Negotiations are currently underway with several national restaurant chains to be included in the new building. Final approval needed from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has been delayed because of Hurricane Sandy but is expected to come some time in April with construction starting as early as May.

Three years ago, Citnalta LLC, a subsidiary of Inserra Supermarkets, the parent company of ShopRite of Northvale, was awarded a 99-year lease for the once deemed environmentally hazardous 2.1 acre TECT/Danzig site by the borough of Northvale for a one-time payment of $500,000. Citnalta was the only bidder for the site. Council president Lloyd Winans signed the lease on June 30, 2010 and the Council approved the lease agreement on July 14, 2010. The contract included an agreement that the borough would knock down the TECT two-story cement block building, and that Citnalta, which was given an option to buy the site, would commit to paying taxes on the property as if it was the owner. Winans remarked that he was glad to see the site back on tax rolls.

When Northvale mayor John Hogan resigned in June 30, 2010 to become Bergen County Freeholder, Peter Perretti was appointed interim mayor on July 21st to fill his unexpired term. In September 2010, Perretti filed a lawsuit with the State Supreme Court requesting a preliminary injunction to stop the borough from executing the terms of Citnaltaʼs contract. Citnalta attorney John Lamb argued that the property is likely to have hazardous material on the site forever and that $500,000 was more than enough for it. The judge denied the injunction and the mayor ultimately dropped his suit.

TECT Inc. purchased the 2.1 acre Northvale property back in 1952. The company manufactured and mixed chlorinated solvents, not only selling the solvents but also collecting customersʼ waste products that had been used as cleaning agents in industrial processes to supposedly recycle them. Its disposal system actually consisted of burying this extremely toxic material in drums, barrels and tanks at its Northvale site. In 1968, TECT declared bankruptcy.

In 1973, Danzig Holdings, a manufacturer of floor finishing products, took title of the site and in 1987 leased the property to Danzig Floor Machine Company, which manufactured and repaired floor-polishing machines. When the company stopped paying taxes in 1996, the borough of Northvale took title of the site by foreclosure for nonpayment of taxes.

Back in 1982, a former employee of TECT alerted the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) that he had witnessed the burial of 100 drums of chemicals at the site. In 1987, the NJDEP took soil samples and found elevated levels of contamination. In 1989, it issued a Notice of Violation to Danzig, directing the company to conduct a remedial investigation to determine the extent of the contamination. The company refused and denied the DEP access.

By October 2000, 750 drums, four storage tanks and barrels containing toxic materials were excavated. Two years later in 2002, an additional two leaking storage tanks were discovered containing significant concentrations of PCBs, among other chemicals, and removed. Remediation of the contaminated soil and the considerably more difficult ground water has taken over ten years. On July 23, 2009, NorthJersey.com reported that Joe Hochreiter, project director of Arcadis US, said the borough was more concerned about soil remediation and that the more significant ground water could take decades to completely remediate.

The NJDEP provided about $2.9 million in Hazardous Discharge Site Remediation Fund money to the municipality, according to Larry Hajna, spokesperson for the DEP. In May 2012, the borough of Northvale tore down the TECT building where a substantial amount of the contaminated material was buried. Clean up was delayed for about a year because remediation money had dried up. With an additional $300,000 received in September 2012 from the NJDEP, remediation continued again. Robert Zelley, a representative for the boroughʼs engineering firm, Maser Consulting, reported that remediation should be complete by March 2013.

On April 22, 2002, the NJDEP and the New Jersey Spill Compensation Fund filed a civil action suit against TECT and its owner James Warren Patrick for compensation for the cleanup. Two years earlier, Patrick had admitted to burying drums of chemicals during a newspaper interview, claiming this was the only way he knew how to dispose of them. In March of 2007 it was reported that the NJDEP reached a $2 million settlement from Patrickʼs estate. Patrick died some time in 2002 after the lawsuit was launched.

HISTORY OF SHOPRITE OF NORTHVALE

In 1946, a small group of independent Newark grocers formed Wakefern Food Corporation (an acronym made up of several of the founders' last names) to cut their costs by buying products cooperatively. In 1951, its members decided to call their stores ShopRite while still retaining the cooperative Wakefern Food name. In 1961, Inserra Supermarkets, the owner of ShopRite of Northvale, joined Wakefern Food Corporation. Patsy Inserra started the company in 1954 with his first store in Lyndhurst, N.J. Two generations later, his grandson Lawrence Inserra Jr. is chairman and chief executive officer. Larry Sr. brought in eighteen stores after he took control in 1970. Forbes reported in 2005 that Inserra Supermarkets' revenue was $1.3 billion, listing the company the following year as number 377 of the largest private companies in the U.S.

Inserra currently employs 4,000 employees and owns and operates twenty-two supermarkets licensed under the ShopRite name in New Jersey and New York. Through the years the family has lent its support to many worthy causes. Larry Jr. is a community leader, serving on the board of directors for numerous organizations from Wakefern Food Corporation to the Hackensack University Medical Center.

Wakefern Food Corporation is the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the U.S. today as well as the largest employer in the state of New Jersey. There are currently forty eight individually owned and operated affiliates and about 250 ShopRite stores spread throughout New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Photo: Eric Vorenkamp