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EPA Schedules Second Public Meeting on Edgewater, N.J. Toxic Site: Public also Given More Time to Provide Input

Release Date: 08/24/2010
Contact Information: Elias Rodriguez, (212) 637-3664, rodriguez.elias@epa.gov

(New York, N.Y.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has provided more time for the public to provide input on the proposed plan to address contamination at the Quanta Resources Superfund Site in Edgewater, New Jersey. EPA will also hold a second public meeting on September 13. Past industrial operations at the Quanta Resources site have caused chemical and other contamination of the property, located at 163 River Road in Edgewater, New Jersey. The proposed plan for this part of the cleanup was issued July 2010. The first public meeting and subsequent information sessions were held in August.

EPA invites the public to ask questions and submit comments for the Quanta Resources Superfund Site at the public meeting in September. Written comments can also be submitted to EPA until the close of the public comment period on September 20.

Meeting Time and Place:

Monday, September 13, 2010 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the American Legion Post, 1165 River Road Edgewater, NJ 07020-1315

The Quanta Resources site on River Road at the intersection of Gorge Road in Edgewater Borough, Bergen County, New Jersey has contamination from several former industrial facilities that once operated at that location. The former Quanta property occupies approximately 5.5 acres of land.

The site is a former waste oil terminal and prior to that, a coal tar facility with numerous tanks, some of which were abandoned, used to store waste oil, tar, asphalt, sludge and other liquids. The State of New Jersey closed the facility down in 1981 when its storage tanks were found to contain large quantities of waste oils contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). PCBs are man-made chemicals that persist in the environment and can affect the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems and are potentially cancer-causing.

EPA supervised a series of actions at the site between 1984 and 1987. The work focused on cleaning and decommissioning abandoned storage tanks and piping. Subsequent sampling at the site revealed the presence of residual contamination in the soil, ground water and sediment that pose a long term risk to human health or the environment. The site was listed on the National Priorities List, or Superfund in September 2002.

The administrative record for the Quanta site is available for review at the Edgewater Free Public Library, 49 Hudson Avenue, Edgewater, NJ. Visit EPA's Quanta web page (https://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/npl/quanta/) for additional information about the Quanta Resources Superfund site or to download a copy of the Proposed Plan.

Members of the public are encouraged to comment on the proposed cleanup plan during the public comment period, which ends on September 20, 2010. Written comments can be emailed or sent to:

Richard Ho, U.S. EPA, 290 Broadway, 19th Floor, New York, NY 10007-1866, email: ho.richard@epa.gov

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