By Michael Sol Warren | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
New Jersey is home to more Superfund sites — the nation’s most polluted locations — than any other state in the country.
It could soon have one more.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday it is proposing to add the Pioneer Metal Finishing, Inc. site in the Franklinville section of Gloucester County’s Franklin Township to the national Superfund list.
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The site is a former electroplating facility that began operations in 1955. For the first couple of decades, until the late ’70s, the facility discharged untreated waste containing metallics salts and sludge into an adjacent wetland. Today, soil in the area is contaminated with chromium, copper and nickel at levels that threat human health, as well as cancer-linked polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs.)
Electroplating work at the site stopped around 2005, according to the EPA. Today, the facility continues to be used for powder-coating operations.
“Proposing to add the Pioneer Metal Finishing Inc. site to the National Priorities List is an important first step toward protecting human health and the environment in affected communities,” said EPA Regional Administrator Pete Lopez.“By elevating our focus on the Superfund program, we are making tremendous progress to accelerate cleanups and return sites to safe and productive use.”
Pioneer Metal’s inclusion on the Superfund list was requested by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection due to the scope of the contamination and the complexity of the required cleanup, DEP spokesman Larry Hajna said.
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