MOUNT OLIVE TOWNSHIP, NJ (Morris County) – Mount Olive Township continues to receive numerous inquiries from residents regarding odors in the area of Wolfe Road near the middle school.
The Township is aware that the source of these odors is the Mount Olive Villages Sewer Company, Inc. (the “Villages”) wastewater treatment plant. The Villages is a private for-profit company and is not affiliated with the Township of Mount Olive, said Township Administrator Andrew Tatarenko.
“We have been in regular communication with the operator of the Villages facility. As explained during the Township’s public meeting on September 17, 2024, the operator has confirmed that repairs were recently made to the plant in early September,” Tatarenko said.
According to the operator, it is apparently taking some time for the system to balance out, Tatarenko said.
The NJ Department of Environmental Protection’s Northern Bureau of Air Enforcement and Water Compliance and Enforcement, as well as the Morris County Division of Public Health, are each actively engaged in investigating the complaints from the Township and the residents and have been inspecting the facility. All three divisions currently have ongoing investigations, Tatarenko said.
“I have instructed the Township Health Department and our Township Attorney to continue to investigate this matter, explore all available legal avenues, and take appropriate action. The Township Health Officer and the Township Attorney have been in continuous communication with officials from the NJDEP and the County of Morris,” Tatarenko said. “We will continue to keep you apprised of all major developments and will not be satisfied until all of the ongoing complaints and concerns have been resolved.”
If you continue to experience nuisance odors, we encourage you to report them by calling the NJ DEP’s 24-hour environmental hotline at 1-877-WARN-DEP (1-877-927-6337). After your initial call to the DEP hotline, follow up with one more phone call to the Mount Olive Health Department at 862-419-4131 so that the township can investigate the incident independently.
