A letter from borough redevelopment attorney Joseph Maraziti to EnCap project executive Michael Cohen dated today claims EnCap owes the borough over $1.2 million in impact fees, land taxes and legal and engineering expenses.

In addition, Maraziti argues that the agreement is null and void because EnCap is behind on its construction schedule to the point where a 2009 completion would be impossible. Also, the letter said the project would be impossible to complete without PILOT bonds, which the state has refused to approve so far.

Rutherford’s agreement with EnCap gave EnCap permission to take a percentage on future tax revenues on housing built above Rutherford landfills in exchange for cleaning up the landfills and forking over millions in impact fees during construction.

The letter also listed the litany of defaults to EnCap’s agreements with several state agencies, including the NJMC, the Department of Environmental Protection and the Environmental Infrastructure Trust.

Maraziti’s letter also pointed out details from a Feb. 28 report from the Office of the Inspector General. The report said the PILOT bonds were well in excess of the cost to clean the landfills and the borough did not know about a $212 million loan from the state when signing the agreement.

The agreement was signed in December 2004. EnCap has since come under scrutiny from the state for failing to live up to its side of the bargain with separate agreements with state agencies, who gave EnCap multi-million dollar loans to clean up the dumps.

Meanwhile, EnCap cut deals to take future tax revenues from Rutherford and Lyndhurst, but the state would not loan the money to the developer upfront. Governor Jon Corzine put a stop to the PILOT bonds, the money EnCap would collect to build its massive real estate project, claiming the local taxpayers would be left with the financial burden if EnCap failed.