Attorney General: Topsoil Firm Must Halt On-Site Disposal Activity

New Jersey Attorney General Paula Dow has won a court order to stop a local company from collecting solid waste and other material on its site, an activity the attorney general said could worsen flooding in the area.

The lawsuit alleges that the presence of “solid waste fill materials” at the local company, Topsoil Depot, increases the “threat of flood damage to surrounding communities," and that  "all fill must be removed to protect these communities,” according to a press release issued by the attorney general's office.

Dow said the court order “halts disposal activity” at the Topsoil Depot site on Pompton Plains Crossroad immediately. The site is within the floodway of the Ramapo and Pompton Rivers and is next to the Pequannock River, all of which experienced significant flooding in the last two weeks. Water was seen rushing through the site for days last week and across Pompton Plains Crossroad to the Pequannock River and nearby shopping center.

Superior Court Judge Margaret McVeigh issued an order against 20 defendants who the state said have dumped more than 22,000 cubic yards of fill and solid waste at the site over the last 18 months with the permission of Topsoil’s owner, Allan Rombough Sr., his son, Allan Rombough Jr., and Summer Freitas, an “officer” for Rombough Jr.’s company Tri State Supply, according to the release.

A phone number listed for Topsoil is not in service. Leland Moore, a public information officer with the Office of the Attorney General, declined to comment on the matter.

The defendants must show cause, by April 15, why a “permanent injunction should not be entered against them ordering them to remove fill material and solid wastes from the site… pending that return date, the court will hold in contempt any company that delivers fill or other materials to Topsoil Depot.”

To view a copy of the order to show cause, click here.