Source: http://www.app.com, October 6, 2017
By: Amanda Oglesby

A cleanup is underway to remove toxic chemicals that have leached into the soil and water around a commercial plaza that was once home to a dry cleaner.

Cumberland Farms Inc., which owns Country Farms plaza at Drum Point and Adamston roads, said environmental remediation efforts have started and will continue until 2022 at the site, where  a former dry cleaning business  rented a storefront between 1987 and 2008.

“Before it closed, the dry cleaner business was dumping in the rear of the property,” Mayor John G. Ducey said in an email. See the video above for views of the scene.

Drum Point Dry Cleaners is the business connected to the contamination, said a Cumberland Farms official. Its principals could not be reached for comment.

Ducey said he has not been advised of any threats to personal or municipal wells.

The chemicals have been linked to birth defects, developmental delays, neurological dysfunction, respiratory ailments and cancer, among other organ system problems, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Exposure may also lead to changes in mood, memory, attention, vision and reaction time and, in high enough levels, cause unconsciousness and death.

The contamination was first discovered in 2010, Cumberland Farms said in a statement.

“Subsequent investigation activities have determined that the impact in the groundwater has migrated from the site; investigation activities are ongoing to identify the extent of contamination,” Cumberland Farms said.

Barbara Filan, a neighbor, said she has few concerns about the contamination at this time, because she has been notified and kept up aware of the ongoing remediation efforts. She said the company has placed a pollution monitoring device on her Drum Point Road property.

“As the property owner, Cumberland Farms is taking actions in accordance with requirements of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to address the impacts, and the company is in the process of installing a remediation system,” Cumberland Farms said in an email to a reporter.

A DEP official did not immediately release investigatory reports concerning the site. Ducey said the DEP is overseeing the project.

Ducey, the mayor, said the owners applied for a municipal permit to install a safety fence around a portion of the plaza and will use “a cleanup system where air is pumped into the water, the bubbles created pick up the contaminants and safely release them in the atmosphere.”

Remediation is scheduled to be complete by May 6, 2022, according to the DEP website.