Source: http://www.northjersey.com, November 17, 2016
By: Scott Fallon

The EPA rejected the borough’s request to exempt it from a costly cleanup at a section of the Ford Superfund site.

Federal environmental officials have rejected the borough’s request to exempt it from a costly cleanup at a section of the Ford Superfund site, according to a letter made public today.
The decision likely means that the borough will move ahead with paving the O’Connor Disposal Area, a considerably less expensive option than removing 166,000 cubic yards of polluted soil at the former dumping grounds.
Ringwood officials have until Tuesday to tell the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency what they plan to do.
The Borough Council is scheduled to go into closed session at its meeting tonight to discuss the Superfund site, according to its agenda. Borough Manager Scott Heck could not immediately be reached for comment.
The future of the Superfund site has consumed the borough this year after a new dangerous chemical – 1,4-dioxane – was found in groundwater at the site. Its discovery spurred a group of residents to renew calls for a complete excavation at O’Connor, saying that the pollution would continue to be a public health threat if left next to a low-income neighborhood and a mile from the Wanaque Reservoir.
EPA has said a plan by the borough and Ford Motor Co. to pave O’Connor and place a recycling center on top is safe because it would prevent direct contact with the pollution. They have said pollution from the site has not migrated to the reservoir, a water source for 3 million.
Pollution dates back to 1967 when Ford’s contractors dumped toxic paint sludge from its Mahwah auto plant at two abandoned mines in Upper Ringwood and the O’Connor area off Peters Mine Road. The EPA has held Ford and the borough liable for more than a decade.
After being criticized at several public meetings this year for supporting the cheaper capping plan, borough officials asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to exempt Ringwood from a multimillion-dollar cleanup bill at O’Connor. They argued the land was an “involuntary acquisition” by the borough resulting from a 1981 tax foreclosure.
But Walter Mugdan, an EPA official in charge of Superfund cleanups, wrote to a borough attorney on Nov. 3 that Ringwood is not exempt because it was “involved in solid waste disposal activities” in several areas of the 455-acre site from the mid-1960s through the 1980s.
While federal law exempts a local government from liability at a Superfund site if they acquire the land via tax delinquency, that government is still on the hook for a cleanup if it contributed to the release of toxic substances. A 1970 letter from then-Mayor John Kulik to Ford indicated that the borough had given the company permission to dispose of industrial waste throughout the site.
The EPA had originally supported excavation at O’Connor but reversed course when borough officials came forward in September 2013 with the recycling plan paid for by Ford.
The borough’s push for a recycling center is a financial one. The capping plan’s $5.4 million cost would be borne by Ford and Ringwood’s insurance carriers under a deal struck by borough officials.
Excavation would cost Ford and the borough $32.6 million. There is no agreement between Ford and the borough over excavation. Borough officials have said they don’t know if their insurance would cover the more expensive cleanup or if local taxpayers would have to pick up the bill.
In September, a state judge rejected efforts by a group of residents to place a question on the Nov. 8 ballot that would have allowed borough voters to strike down the recycling plan.
Ringwood officials had suspended the recycling center plans in light of the 1,4-dioxane discovery. They have until Tuesday to tell EPA if they will follow through with it.