DJ Set up (Photo: Sheriff’s Office)
March 8, 2021 By Christina Santucci
Authorities busted an illegal rave in a Ridgewood warehouse on a contaminated Superfund site early Saturday, the city Sheriff’s office said.
Deputies found 142 maskless people dancing and partying inside the 11-33 Irving Ave. location at around 1:40 a.m.
Photos released by the authorities showed a DJ setup and red streamers and balloons hanging from the ceiling above what appears to be a dance floor.
Deputies had staked out the location after they got a tip about the rave and saw several people go into the warehouse, which had its security gate rolled down halfway. Loud music could also be heard from outside.
Three people were issued tickets for defying pandemic executive orders and health code violations, and one was hit with an additional charge of working as an unlicensed security guard, authorities said.
The club also had no liquor license, and the building did not have a valid certificate of occupancy, the Sheriff said.
The building is part of a .75-acre site included in the National Priorities list of the federal Superfund program, which identifies toxic land around the country in need of a clean up.
The location had previously been home to Wolff-Alport Chemical Company, and the company disposed of thorium waste — a radioactive material — in the sewer and on its property until 1947, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said.
The EPA wrote that if the site wasn’t cleaned up it “may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health, welfare, or the environment,” in 2017.
As of last summer, the federal agency was in the process of collecting soil samples to determine how much of the ground would need to be excavated.
Sheriff’s Office Shuts Down an illegal rave in Ridgewood Saturday (Photo: Sheriff’s Office)
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