From the Environmental Protection Agency

In today’s environmental news, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that three New Jersey Superfund sites are among the over 100 sites across the country getting more than $1 billion for cleanup projects as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. This funding is made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and will launch new cleanup projects at 25 Superfund sites and continue other cleanups at over 85 Superfund sites.😊😊

The New Jersey Superfund sites included are the Matlack, Inc. site in Woolwich, the Raritan Bay Slag site in Old Bridge Township, and the Roebling Steel site in Florence Township. 

The Matlack, Inc. site is a 79-acre property along Route 322 in Woolwich, New Jersey. From 1962 to 2001, the site was used for cleaning trucks and tankers that transported various hazardous substances, including flammable and corrosive liquids. The contaminated cleaning solution was put in an unlined lagoon behind the terminal building until 1976. In addition to the lagoon, EPA found contamination was coming from the Drum Disposal Area of the site. Primary contaminants of concern are volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including Trichloroethylene (TCE) and Tetrachloroethylene (PCE), and various chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs).   

The EPA BIL funding will be used to clean up the Drum Disposal Area of the Matlack site using a thermal treatment technique that will extract contaminant vapors from soil and groundwater. As part of the cleanup, samples will be taken of the soil and groundwater to confirm the treatment worked. This work is estimated to be worth about $30 million. 

The Raritan Bay Slag site is in the Townships of Old Bridge and Sayreville in New Jersey and includes about 1.5 miles of the waterfront of Raritan Bay. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, lead-containing waste slag was deposited along the seawall and jetty sectors of the site. In 2007, elevated concentrations of lead and other metals were identified in soil, water, and sediment. The site is organized into three sectors, which are the Seawall Sector, the Jetty Sector, and the Margaret’s Creek Sector. EPA completed a full cleanup of the Margaret’s Creek Sector in September 2018, including restoration of impacted wetland areas. 

The EPA BIL funding will be used to do initial, preparatory, and contracting work associated with the Seawall Sector of the Raritan Bay Slag site. The estimated value of this work is $1 million. The future work that the BIL-funded preparation work supports will include excavation of all source materials and contaminated soil and sediment, sampling, and restoration of the areas. 

The 200-acre Roebling Steel Company site, which is next to the Delaware River in Florence Township, New Jersey, was used to manufacture steel products. The site included two inactive sludge lagoons and an abandoned landfill. The soil was contaminated with heavy metals like lead, chromium, and cadmium. The nearby river, creek, and wetland sediment were also contaminated with lead, chromium, copper, and hazardous oils and tars. EPA has been cleaning up the site in stages since 1991. EPA has worked to address contaminated structures, soils, sediments, groundwater, and slag-contaminated areas across the site. 

In 2022, EPA used BIL funding to monitor groundwater, cap a portion of the site, and decontaminate, demolish, and conduct historic mitigation of remaining buildings on site. The funds announced today will be applied to cap the remaining 100 acres of the site, including a slag area. The cap will include stormwater drainage and an access road for maintenance. EPA will apply approximately $2 million to initiate the new phase of work.  

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