KEYPORT—New Jersey environmental regulators have known about contamination at a former Keyport aircraft factory since 1986, issued their first monetary penalty in 2021, and have now accumulated nearly $900,000 in penalties that remain unpaid against the property's owner. That's even as residents document 41 cancer cases near the site and the state health department launches a formal investigation.
The 50-acre Aeromarine Industrial Park, a former aircraft manufacturing hub dating to 1917 that became an unpermitted dumping ground in 1962, sits on Chingarora Creek near Raritan Bay. A 2010 environmental assessment found benzene, lead, arsenic, vinyl chloride, PCBs, and methane gas in soil and groundwater, with discharge pathways into the creek and airborne contamination from an open, uncapped site.
Rusty Morris, a 46-year-old former First Street resident, has mapped 41 cancer cases in the neighborhood, including 28 concentrated on First Street alone. The 41 cases have not been verified by independent epidemiologists or state health officials, and the mapping method — resident self-reporting — is subject to recall bias, confirmation bias, and geographic misattribution. The New Jersey Department of Health confirmed an active investigation on April 22, with no scope or timeline disclosed for preliminary findings.
According to U.S. Congressman Frank Pallone's (D-06) April 18 letter, which cited Department of Environmental Protection enforcement records, the state has accumulated nearly $900,000 in penalties against the site's owner, Bay Ridge Realty Corporation of New York. Bay Ridge has owned the property since 1966 and has never redeveloped it. The company is challenging the penalties before an administrative law judge in June 2026. State officials say they are working with Bay Ridge and Pacer Group Holdings, a prospective buyer, on an agreement that would include comprehensive testing and proper capping, though the agency was not specified in the original report.
The enforcement timeline reveals a four-decade gap: state inspections identified violations in 1986, but the first fine, $15,000, was not issued until 2021. Penalties escalated to roughly $300,000 in 2024 after lead was found on the beach, then to nearly $900,000 by 2025. All remain unpaid. The "legacy landfill" classification means pre-1980s dumping is not subject to modern closure standards. DEP's post-2021 penalties for open-site access and shoreline contamination appear to address ongoing conditions rather than historical dumping, though the agency has not explicitly stated this distinction.
Keyport officials sued Bay Ridge Realty in 2021 to force cleanup, but the municipality lacks authority to enforce landfill remediation and the suit ended in 2022, according to NJ.com. Councilman Robert Bergen, who has served Keyport for two decades, directed his anger at the property owner: "They have not operated in good faith."
Congressman Pallone, a Democrat whose district includes Keyport, sent an April 18 letter to four federal and state agencies demanding comprehensive testing, penalty enforcement, and transparent communication with residents. State Senator Declan O'Scanlon, a Republican from Monmouth County, called the situation "all the bad bells and whistles."
DEP spokesperson Caryn Shinske said the agency is "committed to ensuring proper closure of the landfill to protect the environment and public health." However, the agency has not published a timeline for closure. In a November 2024 statement, Shinske said budget cuts and personnel reductions under the Christie administration, which ended in 2018, had weakened enforcement capacity. DEP's FY2025 budget is $491.35 million, with operational funding slightly increased from the prior year and $850 million allocated for Water Bank investments.
If the administrative law judge upholds penalties in June, Bay Ridge faces maximum pressure to close the Pacer deal or risk bankruptcy. If penalties are reduced, the private-market cleanup pathway may collapse. A comparable Superfund site three miles away, the Raritan Bay Slag site, required a $151 million settlement.