Source: http://www.nj.com, September 12, 2016
By: Jonathan D. Salant
Just months after adding a Vineland location to the list of federal Superfund sites, the Environmental Protection Agency announced an $8.7 million plan to clean up contaminated soil at 57 nearby homes.
The plan announced Monday called for removing about 21,000 cubic yards of soil contaminated by arsenic and lead from the now-defunct Kil-Tone Company pesticide manufacturing plant.
“The EPA’s cleanup actions will help protect children and adults from exposure to arsenic and lead in soil at these properties,” EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck said in a statement.
The announcement followed a public hearing last month.
The site at 527 East Chestnut Ave. made pesticides for about two decades, from the 1910s to the 1930s. It now houses a company that makes commercial signs and does not use arsenic.
The cost will be borne under the federal Superfund program as the government has been unable to find any parties responsible for the pollution that it can ask to pay for the cleanup, the EPA said.
Arsenic and lead also was found along the Tarkiln Branch to the Maurice River, the EPA said. That will be the subject of a future cleanup, as will the contaminated soil found on the site of the former pesticide plant.
The EPA said the chemical contamination did not spread to the city’s drinking water though it will continue to be monitored.
EPA designed the Superfund site in April and added sod, stone, mulch or other barriers to the contaminated locations as interim measures in order to reduce potential exposure.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection initially took soil and groundwater samples in August 2014 and referred the site to the EPA in November after finding high levels of arsenic and lead.