EPA Regional Administrator and Congressmember
Frank Pallone Tour Superfund Sites in Central New
Jersey
EPA Finishes
Cleanup of Soil at Imperial Oil Superfund Site in Morganville using
$33 million in
ARRA funds; Uses $5 million in ARRA funds to complete soil work at
Horseshoe Road in
Sayreville
Contact: John Martin, office: (212) 637- 3662,
cell: (646) 256-6710, martin.johnj@epa.gov
(New York, N.Y. – May 2, 2012)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional
Administrator Judith A. Enck and Congressmember Frank Pallone were in
Morganville, N.J. today to announce the completion of a $50 million contaminated
soil cleanup, which clears the way for the redevelopment of the property. The
site received $33 million in new funding through the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) to accelerate the hazardous waste cleanup
already underway. Regional Administrator Enck and Congressman Pallone also
visited three other federal Superfund sites in Monmouth and Middlesex Counties
in New Jersey to highlight the success of the federal Superfund law in
protecting the health of people who live and work near contaminated sites and in
creating jobs. Superfund is the federal cleanup program established in 1980 to
investigate and clean up the country’s most hazardous waste sites. The Superfund
program operates on the principle that polluters should pay for the cleanups,
rather than passing the costs to taxpayers. When sites are placed on the
Superfund list, the EPA looks for parties responsible for the pollution and
requires them to pay for the cleanups. Cleanups are only funded by taxpayer
dollars when the responsible parties cannot be found or are not financially
viable.
“Today,
Congressmember Pallone and I got a first-hand look at how the cleanups of
Imperial Oil and other Superfund sites are protecting people’s health and the
environment,” said EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck. “Sites like
Imperial Oil can be put back to good use. The site has gone from being a
polluted wasteland to area with trees, shrubs, grass, restored wetlands, a pond
and a bike path.”
“Cleaning
up toxic waste sites in New Jersey not only protects public health and the
environment, but in 2011 federal Superfund cleanups created about 2300 jobs,”
said Ms. Enck.
Soil on
the 15-acre Imperial Oil site, which contained a facility that reclaimed and
processed waste oil, was contaminated with arsenic, lead, PCBs and other
pollutants. Arsenic has been linked to cancer of the bladder, lungs, skin,
kidney, liver, and prostate. Lead is a toxic metal that can cause damage to a
child’s ability to learn and a range of health problems in adults. PCBs are
likely cancer-causing chemicals and can cause neurological damage, especially in
children.
The Imperial Oil facility operated from the
1950s until 2007. Improper work practices and piles of waste from oil
reclamation activities contaminated soil and sediment on the plant property, in
adjacent wetlands, the nearby Birch Swamp Brook and on several residential
properties. Ground water underlying the site was also contaminated.
The site
cleanup was originally overseen by the New Jersey Department of Environmental
Protection. The NJDEP excavated soil, cleaned up wetlands and sediment in the
brook and removed oil that was floating underneath the ground on top of the
ground water. The EPA took over the cleanup of the property in 2006 at NJDEP’s
request. In 2008, the EPA completed the demolition of structures on the site,
including all production, storage and maintenance buildings, as well as
above-ground tanks. The EPA used $33 million in ARRA funds to complete the
work.
In 2011,
the EPA completed the excavation of the soil and the restoration of the
industrial property. The agency is in the process of completing seeding and
final restoration of the property and the wetlands. The EPA has also recently
cleaned up contaminated soil on two residential properties. The EPA continues to
investigate the ground water contamination from the site to determine the best
course of action to address it.
The second stop on today’s tour was to the
adjoining Horseshoe Road and Atlantic Resources Superfund sites in Sayreville,
which are located on the south shore of the Raritan River. Both sites are
contaminated with a variety of chemicals, including volatile organic compounds
and heavy metals, which have entered drainage channels that run off into an
8-acre marsh adjacent to the Raritan River. The EPA completed the soil cleanup
at the Horseshoe Road portion of the site in 2009, with the assistance of $5
million in ARRA funding. The EPA’s remaining cleanup plan includes a soil
cleanup at the Atlantic Resources site and the dredging and excavation of
contaminated marsh and river sediments. These sediments will then be disposed of
offsite, and the dredged areas will be backfilled with clean
sediments.
The final
Superfund site visited today was the Chemical Insecticide site in Edison. By
2005, approximately 241,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil had been excavated
and removed from the former home of an insecticide manufacturing facility. The
EPA has put into place a long-term ground water monitoring program to ensure
that any contaminated ground water at this site is addressed. The site is now
owned by the Township of Edison.
For more
information about Superfund sites in New Jersey and across the country, please
visit:
Follow EPA
Region 2 on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/eparegion2 and visit
our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/eparegion2
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