ABSTRACT
In 1951, Nick Lipari purchased a 44-acre family farm in Gloucester County, New Jersey, near the town of Pitman. He opened a sand and gravel pit operation on the land. To fill in the trenches left behind by the excavation, he began accepting municipal and household wastes for disposal. Lipari also started accepting liquid chemical wastes. The toxic soup that accumulated in the landfill leaked into the groundwater and a nearby lake. Only ducks and geese use the lake. In place of the boardwalk and the merry-go-round are signs warning against fishing or swimming in the polluted water. The lake’s environmental troubles predated Nick Lipari’s landfill operation. Owens-Illinois was the first company to dump liquid wastes at Lipari Landfill. The company, a large paint and supplies manufacturer from the nearby town of Glassboro, disposed of an estimated 200 gallons a week of production by-products and paint thinner into Lipari’s pits.
