Paramus Files Lawsuit Against Shamrock Creek LLC Over Reid Park Contamination

The attorney of the Borough Council has been directed to file a lawsuit against Shamrock Creek LLC. The lawsuit claims the developer failed to report whether the contamination on its Soldier Hill Property had crossed over onto the Reid Park nature trail.

The issue was brought up at the past two city council meetings. A Shamrock representative was one of the members of the public that asked whether the park was contaminated, stirring the response from the council.

Mayor Richard LaBarbiera said the borough did not know if its side of the property is contaminated.

Shamrock and Paramus have been fighting for longer than a decade about turning the 35-acre property along Soldier Hill Road into a townhouse development. A pending federal complaint against Paramus filed by Shamrock claims that the borough improperly interfered with the site’s remediation and development.

Craig Johnson, Shamrock’s attorney said that the borough could not claim that it did not know about the site’s contamination. Johnson said Shamrock provided information about the contamination to the borough’s engineers. A 2012 letter from a borough engineer thanks Shamrock for bringing the matter to their attention.

However, borough attorney Paul Kaufman said that the letter is more than 2 years old and specifies that Shamrock needs to continue its delineation as part of state standards to clean up “environmentally impaired” properties.

Kaufman also said that if Shamrock prepared the required report there would be no need for a lawsuit.

Shamrock is fighting another suit against the Department of Environmental Protection regarding the site’s cleanup plan.

A ruling from a state appellate court in May said the developer cannot encroach on the land surrounding a protected stream within the area where Shamrock is trying to remediate the contaminated land it owns. This ruling upheld a previous decision by the DEP.

Shamrock is asking the appellate court to reconsider the ruling.

Photo Credit: NJ Urban Forest