EPA Finalizes Decision on Cleanup Plan for Lightman Drum Company Superfund Site

EPA Press Release:

EPA Finalizes Decision on Cleanup Plan for Lightman Drum Company Superfund Site

C Contact: Elias Rodriguez, (212) 637-3664, rodriguez.elias@epa.gov

WINSLOW TOWNSHIP, N.J. (October 17, 2019) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized its decision to amend part of its previous 2009 plan to clean up an area of the Lightman Drum Company Superfund site in Winslow Township, New Jersey. The amendment revises the plan to require continued monitoring of natural decreases of contaminants in former areas of highly-contaminated groundwater, or hot spots, and no longer requires groundwater to be extracted and treated.

“We are pleased that the EPA’s cleanup work has brought us to a point where contamination levels in groundwater at the Lightman Drum Company site are falling naturally,” said EPA Regional Administrator Pete Lopez. “Our goal is to continue closely monitoring the groundwater to ensure the water keeps improving.”

EPA’s amendment to the previous cleanup plan recommends a process of monitored natural attenuation - a naturally occurring reduction of levels of contamination - in the former hot spots. Part of EPA’s original cleanup plan selected in 2009 required treating the groundwater in hot spots that contained high concentrations of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE). However, because contaminated soil that was the original source of contamination to the groundwater was cleaned up through excavation and through in-place treatment, groundwater contaminant levels are decreasing naturally and are no longer considered hot spots. Existing monitoring and control networks will continue to function in former hot spots for the duration of the project to assess natural attenuation progress and effectiveness.

The Lightman Drum Company Superfund site covers about 15 acres in Winslow Township, Camden County, New Jersey. From 1974 to 1979, the Lightman Drum Company was an industrial waste hauling and drum reclamation business that stored chemical residues in underground storage tanks, drums and trailers. Drums were emptied into a pit in a wooded area of the property, and facility operations contaminated soil and groundwater with various hazardous chemicals, such as pesticides, oil sludges, paints and ink. In October 1999, EPA placed the site on the Superfund National Priorities List, and contaminated soil was removed in 2007. In 2009, EPA issued a Record of Decision, or cleanup plan, that required treatment of contaminated soil source areas and contaminated groundwater.

EPA held a public meeting in September 2019 to explain its proposed amendment to the Lightman Drum Company Superfund site 2009 Record of Decision and to solicit public comments. To read the EPA’s selected cleanup plan amendment, please visit www.epa.gov/superfund/lightman-drum.

For information about Superfund and the NPL: https://www.epa.gov/superfund

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