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BY JOE TYRRELL
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
An infusion of federal stimulus funds should speed a Superfund cleanup at the heavily polluted Cornell-Dubilier Electronics site in South Plainfield, according to federal and local officials.
"We've got a lot more work to do" at the former manufacturing site, said Judith Enck, newly appointed regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection.
But the funding, announced earlier this year, "gives us momentum to get the job done," she said during a Dec. 11 tour of the 25-acre property in the Hamilton Boulevard business district.
The project is among those benefiting from the Dec. 10 settlement of a major bankruptcy case, EPA officials said during the tour. Grupo Mexico agreed to pay $1.79 billion toward Superfund and other clean-ups around the country in order to regain control of its subsidiary American Smelting and Refining Co.
Almost $1.2 million from the deal will go toward the South Plainfield cleanup, and work on other present or former ASARCO sites in New Jersey also will receive some of the settlement money, EPA officials said.EPA contractors are treating some soil contaminated with carcinogenic PCBs on-site or trucking it elsewhere for disposal. The goal is to restore it for commercial or industrial use. Soil removal also took place at nearby homes, where monitoring continues.
"Any time you have money coming in to your town, it's a good thing," said Mayor Charlie Butrico, who foresees redevelopment beginning soon after years of waiting.
"We hope to be able to start redevelopment in 18 months" on an industrial park plus stores along the street, and a road extension through the property, he said. "We're working with the EPA, so that as they finish with part of the site, we may be able to start in less than 18 months."
From 1936 to 1962, Cornell-Dubilier manufactured electronic parts and components, including capacitors, and dumped waste on the property, polluting soil and water, including nearby residential properties and the Bound Brook, according to environmental investigators.
The Bound Brook remains "the most heavily contaminated creek in New Jersey," according to Robert Spiegel, executive director of the Edison Wetlands Association.
EPA project manager Pete Mannino said money is available for required studies of the waterway, which will determine how to proceed.
"We've got seven miles of the Bound Brook to investigate, but it's not all contaminated," he said. "The heaviest contamination is here behind the industrial park."
Enck said it will be years before the brook is cleaned, adding her agency joined with the state in issuing an advisory and posted signs against fishing or consuming fish from the brook. "It's sad that people can't use this resource," she said, although it is unclear how many have been deterred.
During the tour in bone-chilling cold, Enck praised the decision to put some federal stimulus money toward Superfund work, because "the sooner we get these sites remediated, the better it is for the local economy."
But in noting that New Jersey has more Superfund sites than any other state, she acknowledged, "we don't have enough money to cover them all."
Enck was non-committal about New Jersey's decision to license private consultants to perform investigations and remediations for clean-up projects, saying she has not seen the details. But she said the economy could force some practical concessions.
"We may have to do some things differently than in the past because of the budget crisis that's facing our states," she said.
The presence of large-scale excavation and buildings housing thermal soil treatment systems marks a dramatic change at the property, which until recently continued to operate as an industrial/office park with many small tenants.
After the end of electronics manufacturing, numerous other companies rented portions of the complex, which became known as the Hamilton Industrial Park. As recently as five years ago, employees of some said they were unaware of the heavy contamination on parts of the property. The EPA had the industrial park's 18 buildings demolished in 2007.
For more information on this and other sites funded through ARRA, please click here. For more information about the Cornell Dubilier site, please click here.
Joe Tyrrell may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
http://www.wolfenotes.com/2009/05/privatization-of-nj-toxic-cleanup-law-reveals-a-systematic-collapse/#more-532
"But – after she left NJ to become head of US EPA – Jackson reversed course AGAIN.
During January 2009 US Senate Confirmation hearings for US EPA Administrator, Jackson was asked point blank whether she would bring to EPA the privatization program she supported in NJ.
Jackson repudiated privatization – here’s an excerpt of testimony regarding NJ’s privatized “Licensed Site Professional” (LSP) toxic site program:
Question by Committee Chair Senator Barbara Boxer:
Q: Please provide “your views on polluters self certifying that property is clean” (@ time 3:26:45)
A: Lisa Jackson:
“I don’t believe that process [i.e. private certification, as in LSP] has merit at the federal level” (@ time 3:42:43)
Chairman Boxer confirms that Jackson has rejected privatization at EPA and removes any ambiguity at time 3:43:03 by saying:
Q: Boxer: “you don’t anticipate and you do not expect to allow private consultants to certify sites as clean”
A: Lisa Jackson: “NO”
Watch CSPAN video of Jackson testimony here:
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/watch.aspx?MediaId=Congress-A-14317
It is not hard to recognize that the sources of the problems in DEP site remediation program stem from TOO MUCH private sector influence. DEP does ZERO enforcement of cleanup requirements and industrial polluters are allowed to simply stonewall DEP case managers and run out the clock. Other polluters that want a quick and dirty cleanup approval expedited by DEP exert top down political pressure on DEP staffers to rubber stamp grossly deficient cleanup plans in order to allow land transactions and development to proceed at low cost. By law, the selection of the cleanup plan is controlled exclusively by the polluter, an absurd situation that allows cost minimization and economic factors to drive what should be a public health and environmental protection program.
This – plus GROSS MISMANAGEMENT at DEP – is what explains the huge case backlog and extensive delays in cleanup. A US EPA Inspector General’s Report validates that assessment.
According to the EPA IG Report:
“Claims about New Jersey’s overwhelming workload were brought to our attention during the evaluation. At that time, we requested documentation from NJDEP to support this workload challenge. We specified that we would need evidence that spanned the 20 year period since these sites were listed on the NPL. NJDEP did not provide this information.”(@ page 11)
Read the EPA IG Report here:
Improved Controls Would Reduce Superfund Backlogs
http://www.epa.gov/oig/reports/2008/20080602-08-P-0169.pdf
end
"Enck was non-committal about New Jersey's decision to license private consultants to perform investigations and remediations for clean-up projects, saying she has not seen the details. But she said the economy could force some practical concessions.
"We may have to do some things differently than in the past because of the budget crisis that's facing our states," she said."