E.P.A. Suggests Cleanup Project for Brick Township Landfill Superfund Location

(New York, N.Y.) -- The E.P.A. (EPA), along with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), is proposing a project to address contamination at the Brick Township Landfill Superfund location in Brick Township, Ocean County, New Jersey. E.P.A. 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 suggested plan. The project 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, E.P.A. Regional Administrator. "I encourage residents to come to the public meeting to hear about the project and to get their questions answered."

Under the suggested 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 location spans approximately 470 acres. The Brick Township Landfill began operations in the late 1940s and for 30 years was a disposal location 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 E.P.A. 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 6 years later.

Cleanup work at the site, conducted by NJDEP, E.P.A. 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 suggested plan.

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

Jonathan Gorin, Remedial Plan Manager
E.P.A.
290 Broadway, 19th floor
New York, New York 10007-1866
[email protected]

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

For a Google Earth aerial view of the Brick Township Landfill, go to: http://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).

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