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Superfund program is in dire distress
(by Michael Lamendola - May 31, 2007)
Local sites have progressed, but still make the list
They sit fallow, contaminated and useless as far as any construction or preservation goes for the meantime. One is a 75-acre wasteland in East Rutherford that has contamination in soil, sediments and groundwater ranging from toluene and benzene to lead. Some parts have been developed, but most of the site still remains a sore spot on a past legacy of pollution. The other is only six acres, but has tainted Carlstadt´s reputation by making it the host town to at one time, the eleventh most polluted site in the nation.
They are two local sites not only listed as Superfund sites, but sit on the National Priorities List, as the most severely polluted and in need of remediation. Universal Oil Products in East Rutherford and Scientific Chemical Processing in neighboring Carlstadt are on the road to remediation through the nearly 30-year-old Superfund program. Superfund, however, is super no more according to one federal public watchdog and the numbers back up that argument. It leaves a grave reminder sites like the two aforementioned may have a long, tough road ahead to a suitable form of cleanliness and that many others hang in the balance of a financially declining government program.
The study
The study, conducted by a Washington D.C. based public interest group, The Center for Public Integrity, shows a grave demise in the amount of federal funds appropriated to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with regard to annual remedial efforts. It also showed a significant decline in the amount the EPA is collecting from companies held liable for the contamination at designated Superfund sites dotted across the nation.
The Superfund program was initiated in 1980 in response to Love Canal, NY, an Upstate town where residents found neighborhoods had been built upon a contaminated cesspool after falling victim to illnesses such as cancer at accelerated rates.
Through extensive research of public data and obtained confidential statistics from the EPA, the Center found an extensive slowdown in the Superfund program is currently underway. Cleanup efforts have started on 145 sites nationwide while the pace in the last six years averaged three times that amount. Only 42 sites reached "construction complete" status by the EPA annually within the last six years while in the six years prior, the number was 79 sites per year. As for funding, the Center detailed a dramatic decline in the amount of cost recovery from responsible parties after the EPA takes initial cleanup efforts. Over the last six years, the number has dropped by nearly half. In 1997 for example, the EPA recovered nearly $325 million. Last year, the number was only slightly over $50 million.
"It shows that the program is as dirty as a Superfund site," said Jeff Tittle, director of the Sierra Club of New Jersey. "There´s obviously not the right amount of resources. It´s a disaster and everyday federal dollars are not appropriated or companies are let off the hook, more toxins are being poured into the air, water and soil of communities. People should really be worried."
Progress on local toxic legacies
The Universal Oil Products site is now owned by Honeywell International, the company with the dubious distinction of being partially responsible for the cleanup of 128 total Superfund sites across the nation, making it the company with the most outstanding contaminated sites under its belt. It made the Superfund NPL list in 1983 after operations ceased in 1979 after nearly 50 years of manufacturing various chemicals on-site. The result of operations left the site riddled with 29 known contaminants that affected groundwater, nearby Berry´s Creek, and soil.
According to Victoria Streitfeld, a spokeswoman for Honeywell, remedial action, all funded by Honeywell with no federal dollars dedicated to cleanup, is nearly complete on the upland portion of the property bordering Route 17. The Lowes home improvement store and Chili´s restaurant have been built atop remediated land federal regulators have deemed complete, Yet in 2005 during the construction of the projects, more soil had to be excavated from the site after contaminated levels were still detected. The remedial process for the uplands portion included capping 45,000 yards of lead and PCB/PAH-contaminated soil, treating 8,200 tons of PCB/PAH-contaminated soil with vapor extraction, using the same process on 3,200 tons of VOC-contaminated soil and extracting 6,600 cubic years of PCB/PAH-contaminated soils.
As far as the other three-quarters of the property, much of which is wetlands, Streitfeld said the company is in a remedial investigative phase that should be complete by 2008. Currently tracks are being laid for the new NJ Transit rail line to the Meadowlands Sports Complex in areas the EPA has labeled "unsafe, uncontained and could reach and harm people".
"The problem there is they will make future cleanup efforts at the site more difficult," said Tittle. "They´re going to lay a thin capping strip through the middle of the site underneath the tracks and when the rest of the site is to be remediated, there will be this ribbon of contamination cutting right through it."
Streitfeld deferred formal comment on the company´s grand scope of remediation of its entire Superfund obligation to a letter written by Evan Van Hook, vice president of health, safety, environment and remediation at Honeywell to the Center of Public Integrity last December. The letter makes no mention of East Rutherford´s site, but details the efforts which Honeywell initiated to rectify problems at their entire stock of Superfund responsibilities. According to the letter, Van Hook said Honeywell has remediated, post-remediated or settled out its remedial obligations with the government or other responsible parties at two-thirds of its sites.
"Honeywell is committed to a proactive and comprehensive approach to environmental remediation," wrote Van Hook. "Virtually all of our remediation liabilities relate to the historical operations of those of predecessor companies. We are committed to environmental excellence in all of our businesses and wherever we have legacy environmental matters."
In Carlstadt, there is more hope for the lingering national priority in the Superfund´s Scientific Chemical Processing site on Paterson Plank Road. The site was also named to Superfund in 1983 after being shut down by a court order in 1980 for not paying taxes. Over the course of its operations from 1971 to 1980, over 375,000 gallons of hazardous substances where housed on the property. The operations also seeped high levels of VOC and PAH into the soil and water of nearby Peach Island Creek.
In this case, the EPA has identified 80 responsible parties that had used the site to house and process toxins during its operations, thus making all responsible for cleanup. According to Stephanie Vaughn, a site project manager for the EPA, capping with plastic sheathing and airstrips to prevent PCP gas exposure has been implemented by way of $7.5 million funded by various responsible parties. By 2008, the site should be fully capped and remedial decontamination should commence.
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