newjerseynewsroom.com

BY JOE TYRRELL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Following through on earlier studies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has added a Byram site to its Superfund clean-up list, and is considering one in Garfield.

In Byram, tests have found chemical contamination has spread from in a wooded area, previously used as a makeshift dump, into groundwater under nearby homes. A bicycle and hiking trail runs through the area, in the vicinity of Sparta-Stanhope Road.

In a statement announcing the designation of the Mansfield Trail site under Superfund, the agency said chemicals vapors in basements pose a risk of cancer and damage to the liver or nervous system.

“EPA is taking action to address toxic contamination in one of New Jersey’s most scenic areas,” Judith Enck, the EPA's regional Administrator, said in a press release.

Among the contaminants found so far in a series of trenches are trichloroethene in high levels, as well as chlorinated benzene compounds. Further investigation is needed, but Enck promised to clean the area to the point where there is no health threat to residents or bikers.

The Byram site was one of 10 additions to the Superfund's National Priorities List, bringing the total to 1,637 since the program began in 1980. Originally, it was funded by a tax on polluting industries. Congress allowed the tax to expire in the 1990s, leaving the clean-ups dependent on the threat of legal action against those responsible for the problems or the use of tax dollars.

To date, the EPA has declared work complete at 347 sites, leaving 1,290 still on the list. There are another 66 proposed sites awaiting final agency action, including five federal facilities.

That list also grew on March 8, as the agency announced 15 sites, including an area of southwest Garfield, that will be subject to a 60-day comment period prior to a final decision.

The proposal is the most decisive step in a process that dates back to June 1993, when chromium-contaminated groundwater and crystals were discovered in the basement of Garfield Fire House #3. The contaminant hexavalent chromium is a carcinogen probably best known from the movie "Erin Brockovich," which documented the effects on residents of Hinkley, Calif.

The EPA noted that as an old industrial town, Garfield had sites such as a tannery and a chemical plant that were located near residential areas and used chromium in their processes.

In 2008, the state Department of Environmental Protection asked the EPA to look at basements in an area bordered by Van Winkle Avenue to the north, Monroe Street to the south, Sherman Place to the east, and the Passaic River to the west.

Of nearly 500 homes and businesses inspected, the EPA identified 270 with groundwater infiltration problems and took samples. At a meeting at City Hall in May 2010, federal and state officials said hexavalent chromium-contaminated dust in the basements of 16 of 160 homes near the E.C. Electroplating Company in Garfield poses a public health risk.

The EPA, the state Department of Health and Senior Services and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry identified nearly 290 homes -- including the 160 -- for investigation because of groundwater infiltration.

In September, the ATSDR issued a health advisory recommending that EPA continue to take steps to minimize people’s exposure to the contamination and that it expedite a long-term cleanup.

In the new announcement, the EPA said its contractors have removed the contamination but more work is needed. The agency is in the process of installing 30 monitoring wells around the neighborhood.

While we have kept people out of immediate danger by monitoring and cleaning up the basements of homes and businesses in this community, we need a long-term solution to the ground water contamination in Garfield,” Enck said.

Adding the site to the Superfund list would make it eligible for comprehensive clean-up funding. But the agency offered assurances that local drinking water is safe, because the contamination poses no threat Garfield's municipal water supply.

For instructions on how to submit comments, click here, or contact Ildefonso Acosta, Region 2 NPL Coordinator, at 212-637-4344, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

To see the Federal Register notice and supporting documents for these sites, as well as other proposed and final sites, on the day of publication, click here.