Proposed Settlement
Regarding Cleanup of Superfund Site
In Warren County, New
Jersey
Value of Cleanup Work Estimated at $92 Million
Underground Contaminated Plume to be Addressed
Contact:
Elias Rodriguez, (212) 637-3664,
rodriguez.elias@epa.gov
(New
York, N.Y. – January 13, 2015) The Department of Justice and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a proposed settlement
with several companies to address the Pohatcong Valley Groundwater
Contamination Superfund site in Warren County, New Jersey. The companies are
Pechiney Plastic Packaging, Inc. (Pechiney), Albéa Americas, Inc.,
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Citigroup Inc., and Rexam Beverage Can Company.
The Pohatcong site is contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE) and
perchloroethylene (PCE), which can have serious health effects.
Under
the proposed settlement, Pechiney will have primary responsibility for cleaning
up contaminated soil and groundwater at the site, connecting some residents to
public water to avoid contaminated groundwater, and operating systems to
capture vapors that are getting into a manufacturing facility. As a precaution,
the company will continue to monitor for vapor intrusion into homes at the
site. In addition, the EPA will receive an estimated $29.5 million for certain
past costs and be paid for its future oversight costs at the site. Pechiney
will also perform current and future cleanup work estimated to cost $62.5
million, and will pay EPA’s future oversight costs.
EPA
added the Pohatcong site to the Superfund list in 1989 because of elevated
levels of volatile organic contaminants including TCE and PCE in the
groundwater. These contaminants, both of which can have serious health impacts
(including liver damage and increased risk of cancer), were detected in public
supply wells, which are now treated to meet drinking water standards before the
water is distributed. The site includes a contaminated groundwater plume that
is approximately ten miles long and approximately one and a half miles wide,
nearly 9,800 acres.
As
part of the settlement, EPA will recover civil penalties from Pechiney to
resolve allegations that Pechiney violated a previous EPA order by failing to
make satisfactory progress on a portion of the cleanup at the site. Pechiney
will pay a cash penalty of $282,000. Pechiney will also restore and preserve
approximately 60 acres of land, valued at $1.1 million, in Warren County
through a Supplemental Environmental Project. This land will be converted to
native grassland and will become part of the Morris Canal Greenway. The land
will be managed by Warren County through its existing relationship with the New
Jersey Youth Corps of Phillipsburg, a “second chance” program for young adults
that provides opportunities to earn a GED while providing a valuable service to
the community.
“This
agreement will address a legacy of contaminated groundwater and soil in Warren
County that exposed this community to dangerous health risks,” said John C.
Cruden, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and
Natural Resources Division. “The settlement will help ensure residents have
access to clean drinking water, require Pechinery to restore and preserve
valuable native grasslands, and pay for millions in past cleanup costs.”
“The
settlement advances our cleanup and will help protect drinking water as well as
safeguard people’s health,” said EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck.
“The remaining cleanup work at the Pohatcong Valley site will proceed and an
area of open space that can be enjoyed by members of the public will be
restored and preserved.”
Because
of the size and complexity of the site, EPA divided the site into three parts.
Today’s settlement covers work in all three portions of the site.
The
first part is a large area of groundwater contamination located in Washington
Borough. Residents of this area do not drink the groundwater because they
receive drinking water from a public water supply that meets drinking water
standards. For this part of the site, the EPA finalized a 2006 plan to pump out
the contaminated groundwater and treat it using a technology that will strip
out the pollutants by blowing air through the contaminated water to separate
out the chemicals. The resulting clean water will be pumped back into the
ground. An engineering design is underway to carry out this remedy. EPA is also
performing a pump and treat remedy for a portion of the groundwater that is
primarily contaminated with PCE. Some of the proceeds recovered through the
settlement will fund this part of the site cleanup.
The
second area of the site includes contaminated ground water in Franklin and
Greenwich Townships. There is no public water supply currently available in
most of this area and drinking water wells that are impacted by contamination have
received individual treatment systems to provide clean drinking water. For this
area, the EPA is requiring the construction of water lines to provide potable
water. The engineering design for this part of the project in ongoing.
The
third part of the site is the contaminated soil and sediment in and around the
former American National Can facility in Washington Township. The EPA has
determined that the primary source of TCE contamination in this area is the
former American National Can facility, which was owned and operated by Pechiney
in the 1990s and is currently owned and operated by Albéa Americas, Inc. EPA is
continuing to investigate this contamination. Pechiney has agreed to perform
the cleanup on Albéa’s property, and the parties have reserved the issue of who
will be responsible for remaining cleanup activities in this area.
In
2013, the EPA’s indoor air sampling of the Albéa Americas facility showed
unacceptable levels of TCE. The EPA worked with Albéa to take actions to
protect workers from exposure to potentially cancer-causing gases by reducing
the levels of toxic contaminants in the air in the facility to safe levels.
These steps included building a system that removes harmful chemicals from soil
by extracting them in vapor form with a vacuum and then filtering the vapors
through carbon filters to remove contaminants. The EPA will be reimbursed for
this work through the settlement.
The
Superfund program operates on the principle that polluters should pay for the
cleanups, rather than passing the costs to taxpayers. The EPA searches for
parties legally responsible for the contamination at sites, and it seeks to
hold those parties accountable for the costs of investigations and cleanups.
Under today’s settlement, the parties responsible for the site are paying for
or performing the cleanup work.
The
proposed settlement will be subject to a 30-day public comment period upon the
publication of a notice in the Federal Register.
Once
it is published, a copy of the Federal Register notice with instructions about
how to comment can be found at http://www.justice.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html.
The
settlement requires approval by the United States District Court before
becoming final.
For
more information on the Pohatcong Valley Groundwater Contamination Superfund
site, go to: http://www.epa.gov/region2/superfund/npl/pohatcong/