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EPA Proposes Cleanup Plan for Brick Township Landfill Superfund Site

Release Date: 09/04/2008
Contact Information: Michael Ortiz (212) 637-3670, ortiz.michael@epa.gov

(New York, N.Y.) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), is proposing a plan to address contamination at the Brick Township Landfill Superfund site in Brick Township, Ocean County, New Jersey. EPA and NJDEP will hold a public meeting at the Brick Township Civic Plaza, located at 270 Chambers Bridge Road at 7pm on September 10, 2008 to explain the proposed plan. The plan calls for a cap over the landfill and monitoring of the contaminated groundwater emanating from the landfill.

“Protecting the community of Brick Township, as well as the environment, is our number one priority,” said Alan J. Steinberg, EPA Regional Administrator. “I encourage residents to come to the public meeting to hear about the plan and to get their questions answered.”

Under the proposed plan, the landfill would be capped to prevent rain water from seeping into the landfill and spreading contamination, while exposure to contaminated groundwater will continue to be prevented through legal restrictions on installation and use of drinking water wells. In addition, the area of contaminated groundwater will be monitored to ensure that the cap and legal controls on groundwater use remain protective.

The Brick Township Landfill is approximately 40.7 acres in size and currently consists of mostly vegetated land. An area of contaminated ground water associated with the site spans approximately 470 acres. The Brick Township Landfill began operations in the late 1940s and for 30 years was a disposal site for residential wastes, construction debris and vegetative wastes, as well as sewage and septic wastes. During the landfill’s operation, drums filled with engine oil, lubricants, automatic transmission fluid, anti-freeze, resin, pesticides and herbicides, were disposed of at the site. NJDEP and EPA have estimated that 63 million gallons of septic wastes were accepted at the landfill from 1969 to 1979. Brick Township acquired ownership of the landfill in 1973, and the landfill ceased operations six years later.

Cleanup work at the site, conducted by NJDEP, EPA and the local township, has included extensive sampling of the landfill’s monitoring wells, septage pits, surface water and off-property monitoring and residential drinking water wells, which showed a variety of contaminants, chloroform and 1,1,1-trichloroethane in soil and ground water, both on and off the landfill property. The septage pits had high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), metals and pesticides and herbicides. In recent years, fourteen rounds of ground water samples were collected by the Township from monitoring wells within and outside the area of contaminated ground water. The results of this sampling formed the basis of the 2008 Feasibility Study which helped shape this proposed plan.

A public comment period will run until September 22, 2008. EPA will select the final remedy for the Brick Township Landfill Superfund site after reviewing and considering all comments submitted during the public comment period. Interested individuals can send comments to:

Jonathan Gorin, Remedial Project Manager
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
290 Broadway, 19th floor
New York, New York 10007-1866
gorin.jonathan@epa.gov

For more information on the Brick Township Landfill Superfund site, visit: https://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/npl/bricktownship/

For a Google Earth aerial view of the Brick Township Landfill, go to: https://www.epa.gov/region02/kml/brick_township_landfill.kml (You must have Google Earth installed on your computer to view the map. To download Google Earth, visit http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html).