Back in 1981, the Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA) was given one simple job. Build one new landfill for people in Atlantic County to safely dump our trash and garbage. Last month, the ACUA again admitted that it didn’t even begin to do this.
The ACUA is still using a temporary dump which is nearly full. Its fumes are polluting several neighborhoods. It must close in less than three years. When that happens, everyone in Atlantic County will pay a lot more in taxes to ship our garbage miles away and pay top dollar to dump it.
This didn’t happen when governments in America “exercised their just powers with the consent of the governed”. However, today it is normal for failures in government to be praised, promoted, and given raises and generous pensions. The ACUA is a classic example.
The ACUA was created by Atlantic County government in 1969 as the Atlantic County Sewerage Authority. Its job was to clean up our rivers, back bays and groundwater with a new county-wide sewage system.
At that time, all sewage was dumped into back bays, rivers, and leaky septic systems. Old timers remember that anyone foolish enough to swim in the back bays of Atlantic City during low tide got a skin rash called “the doggies”.
In 1978, the Atlantic County Sewerage Authority built a new sewage treatment plant in Atlantic City and miles of pipeline. Since then, it has collected sewage from all over Atlantic County, removed 85% of the pollution at its Atlantic City plant, and then dumped the mostly purified water more than a mile out in the ocean. It is now safe to swim in the back bays near Atlantic City and to harvest and eat clams and crabs there.
In 1981, Atlantic County government gave the Sewerage Authority a second big job – build a new landfill for people in Atlantic County to dump their garbage. It also gave the Sewerage Authority a new name – “The Atlantic County Utilities Authority”.
At that time, Atlantic County had 46 “unlined” dumps that were leaking pollution into ground water. We had to replace them with a new “double-lined” dump (now called “landfill”) that did not leak pollution.
In 1990, the Atlantic County Commissioners (then Freeholders) found three suitable sites. When residents near them objected, politicians asked the ACUA to make the decision. They never did.
In 1991, the ACUA decided to build an incinerator like Camden, instead of a dump. It then borrowed $82 million to do it. Seven years later, the ACUA reported that it had spent that $82 million but could not build the incinerator.
In 1998, the ACUA was in crisis. It could not pay back the $82 million it had borrowed. And it did not have any money to build the new landfill that was still desperately needed.
Atlantic County’s elected officials gave the ACUA a temporary fix. It also allowed the ACUA to impose extra fees on everyone in Atlantic County who was using private contractors to bypass the ACIA and ship their trash to dumps outside the county.
The ACUA also converted its limited dump for construction debris by the airport in Egg Harbor Township to a temporary landfill for all trash and garbage.
However, it did nothing to build a permanent landfill.
Twelve years later, in 2010, the ACUA was in crisis again. Federal courts had ruled that the ACUA fees on people not using its services was an unconstitutional tax on interstate commerce.
Atlantic County Commissioner (then Freeholder) Jim Curcio held hearings that exposed the 20 years of failure by the ACUA. He was on the verge of persuading a majority of commissioners vote to abolish the ACUA and have county government take over its duties.
James Curcio, a Hammonton attorney, was an Atlantic County commissioner (freeholder) until January of 2011. He was nominated and elected to the non-political office of County Surrogate shortly after he investigated the ACUA and proposed abolishing it.
That never happened. The Republican Party quickly nominated Curcio as its candidate for Atlantic County Surrogate. That is a semi-judicial office that severely restricts political activity. Jim Curcio won election to that new office in November, and became Surrogate in January of 2011. As soon as Curcio left the freeholder board, all efforts to abolish the ACUA ended.
Now, the ACUA is in crisis again. Atlantic County will have no place to dump its trash in less than three years. Yet the ACUA is no closer to building a new landfill now than it was 43 years ago.
This is what the ACUA has been doing instead:
- Created lots of political jobs and awarded a lot of political contracts. Last year, the ACUA employed 280 people with top 24 paid $100,000 to $160,000 per year plus state medical insurance, vacations, paid holidays and pensions. Nice work if you can get it! Source: Atlantic County Utilities Authority Salaries – New Jersey
- Leased land in Atlantic City to Leeward Renewable Energy, LLC and other private companies for five wind turbines since 2006. Falsely claims that wind turbines saved money and fossil fuels, when most, if not all money received paid for with various state and federal taxes and fees added to electric bills.
- Built and maintained 2,700 solar panels near sewage treatment plant. Falsely claims that wind turbines saved money and fossil fuels, when most, if not all money received paid for with various state and federal taxes and fees added to electric bills.
- Since 1991 spent millions of dollars for duplicate trash collection which it calls “recycling”, and having it sorted and shipped elsewhere. Fails to disclose that there is little or no use or market for “recycling” and that most is dumped as trash, often in third world countries. Much of the plastic ends up polluting our oceans.
- Pays to maintain a website, send bulk emails, and publish and distribute thousands of “free” 12 page “newspapers” three times each year throughout Atlantic County. Their propaganda praises the work of the ACUA and its employees, promotes its fake, leftist “climate change” agenda including ocean wind turbines and electric cars and covers up the waste, failures and total insanity of “recycling”. In 2021, some of its highest paid employees pretended to be a Pleasantville community group to stop a private, tax-paying company from using railroad cars for cheaper and more efficient disposal of construction debris. Click Here For Link To Previous Post: Top Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA) Officials Use Public Funds To Mislead Public & Snuff Out Competitors. Time for County Exec & Commissioners To Step In. – Liberty and Prosperity
- Pays employees to prepare various “charitable” food and clean-up drives and special events like “Earth Day” to win public support for its budgets and “climate change” agenda. In 2023, the ACUA sponsored an “Electric Vehicle Celebration” to promote EV’s and Biden’s “Inflation Reduction Act”. Click Here For Link: ACUA, Controlled By Atlantic County Republicans, Again Promotes Democrat Climate Agenda! – Liberty and Prosperity
- Pays employees to visit schools and indoctrinate children with its fake, leftist “climate change” agenda.
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