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EPA Proposes Plan for Final Stage of Cleanup at Superfund Site in Sayreville, New Jersey

Release Date: 08/04/2008
Contact Information: Beth Totman (212) 637-3662, totman.elizabeth@epa.gov

(New York, NY) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing a plan for the third and final stage of cleanup at two sites in Sayreville, Middlesex County, New Jersey. The Horseshoe Road site and the adjoining Atlantic Resources Corporation (ARC) site are located on the south shore of the Raritan River. Both sites are contaminated with a variety of chemicals, which have entered drainage channels that run off into an 8-acre marsh adjacent to the Raritan River. EPA’s proposed plan calls for dredging and excavating contaminated marsh and river sediments, disposing of them off site, and backfilling excavated or dredged areas with clean sediments. A public meeting to explain EPA’s proposed plan will be held on Tuesday, August 12 at 7pm at the Sayreville Town Hall located on 167 Main Street.

“The Raritan is a major river in Central Jersey and we are eager to begin work on areas of the river and marshland that have been contaminated by past activities at these two Superfund sites,” said Alan J. Steinberg, Regional Administrator. “We have already achieved a great deal at these two sites and beginning this last phase of the cleanup will not only be a positive for the community of Sayreville, but also for Central Jersey.”

The Horseshoe Road site was placed on the National Priorities List (NPL) in 1995 and the ARC site was placed on the list in 2002. While they are considered separate sites on the basis of past disposal activities, their proximity and commingled wastes have led EPA to address the sites jointly.

The Horseshoe Road site consists of three areas, including the Sayreville Pesticide Dump (SPD), the Horseshoe Road Drum Dump (HRDD), and the former Atlantic Development Corporation (ADC) facility. Both the SPD area and the HRDD area were used from the 1950s to the early 1980s for disposal of some materials produced on the property. The ADC facility contained three buildings that were owned or leased by many companies from the early 1950s to the early 1980s. The various operations over time included the production of roofing materials, sealants, polymers, urethane and epoxy resins, resin pigments, wetting agents, pesticide intermediates and recycled chlorinated solvents.

The adjacent ARC site is approximately a 4.5-acre property, also located on Horseshoe Road, and was home to a precious metals recovery facility, which contained several interconnected buildings and structures, including a series of incinerators used for precious metals recovery. The facility recovered gold and silver from fly ash, circuit boards, x-ray and photographic film and also accepted spent solvents. All commercial operations at the ARC site ceased in the early 1980s.

Since 1985, when EPA took the lead in the cleanup at the request of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), the Agency has done a great deal of work, including removing more than 3,000 drums, cleaning up dioxin and mercury spills and excavating and disposing of contaminated soil and debris.

EPA has addressed the contamination at the two sites in phases. In the first phase, buildings and above-ground structures at the ADC and the ARC properties were demolished and removed from the site. The second phase began earlier this year and is expected to take a little less than three years to complete. In this stage of the cleanup, contaminated soil, which has been found to be the source of the ground water contamination at the site, will be excavated and disposed of off-site. Through this action, contaminated soil and the source of ground water contamination will be addressed.

EPA is now proposing the third and final part of the cleanup, which will address the contaminated sediments in the marsh and river. Arsenic, mercury and Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) are the primary contaminants that have been found in sediments in the marsh and in the Raritan River. By addressing marsh sediments, the cleanup would also be addressing a continuing source of contamination to the river.

EPA, in consultation with the NJDEP, will select the final remedy for this third phase of the cleanup after reviewing and considering all comments submitted during a 30-day public comment period which ends August 20, 2008. Interested individuals can send comments to:

John Osolin, Remedial Project Manager
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
290 Broadway, 19th floor
New York, New York 10007-1866
osolin.john@epa.gov

For more information on the Horseshoe Road site, go to: https://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/npl/horseshoe/. For information on the Atlantic Resources Corporation site, visit: https://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/npl/atlanticresources/. More reading on EPA’s Superfund program can be found at: https://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/.

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