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New Jersey Site Ready to Come off Superfund List

Release Date: 09/03/2009
Contact Information: Beth Totman (212) 637-3662, totman.elizabeth@epa.gov

(New York, NY) All cleanup work has been successfully completed at the Wilson Farm Superfund site in Plumsted Township, New Jersey and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is deleting it from the national list of the country’s most hazardous waste sites. EPA sought input from the public on this action, and will be finalizing its decision next week. Although the site will be taken off of the list, it remains eligible for cleanup in the very unlikely event that changes in the condition of the property warrant such action.

“The fact that we can take this site off the list shows that the Superfund program delivers results for the people of New Jersey,” said George Pavlou, Acting Regional Administrator. “EPA has made sure that this site no longer poses a threat to the community, and deleting Wilson Farm from the Superfund list shows that the long, hard work it takes to thoroughly clean up a site has a big payoff in the end.”

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Thiokol Corporation (later known as Morton -Thiokol Incorporated or MTI) allegedly disposed of bulk liquid and drummed waste on the surface of the site. Between the years 1980 and 1992, approximately 1,265 cubic yards of sludge, solid waste and contaminated soil have been excavated and removed, eliminating the potential for exposure to contaminants. Following the completion of all these activities, 34 post-excavation soil samples were collected to confirm the effectiveness of the work.

An August 1993 Record of Decision for the site provided for a five-year ground water, surface water and sediment monitoring program to ensure that any residual contamination remained below levels of concern. That monitoring was completed in 1999. In addition, a supplemental remedial investigation approved by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in March 2005 found that chloroform and lead had been eliminated from the majority of the ground water monitoring wells at the site. One well (MW-8S) contains low-levels of chloroform, and it will be monitored until the chloroform level reaches ground water quality standards.

EPA identifies sites at which serious hazards exist or have existed that pose a significant risk to public health, welfare or the environment, and maintains these sites on the NPL until they are deemed cleaned up and ready for deletion.

For more information about the Wilson Farm Superfund site, go to: https://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/npl/0200740c.pdf

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