State, Top Soil Owner Reach Settlement Agreement

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) reached a settlement in principal Tuesday with the owner of the Top Soil Depot site and 20 trucking companies for allegedly dumping thousands of yards of contaminated fill and solid waste on the site since 2009, NorthJersey.com reported.

Larry Hajna, a spokesman with the DEP could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The state had wanted Allan Rombough Sr. for his refusal to remove supposed contaminated material from the 12-axre site. The site is located on Pompton Plains Crossroad next to the Pompton River and near the Pequannock and Ramapo Rivers.

Rombough signed a judicial consent order in 2008 agreeing to clean up the property, but never fully complied with it, the state said.

Rombough and his son Allan violated a court order to stay off the property but a DEP inspector that he observed Rombough and his son Allan Rombough Jr. removing documents from storage bins on the site and placing them into a storage bin just days before they were scheduled to appear at a hearing before McVeigh.

The elder Rombough testified at that hearing that he has difficulty remembering things. McVeigh ordered he go through a battery of tests to see if he had the mental capacity to understand to stay off the site.

Confidential to determine if the elder Rombough possessed the mental capacity to comprehend the court order to stay off the property were held. Their findings were never released, NorthJersey.com reported.