Source: http://www.nj.com, January 20, 2015
By: Mike Davis
The five-year effort to address lead contamination at the Italian-American Sportsmen’s Club is close to a conclusion with nearly all sides agreeing that it has been handled appropriately.
In a letter sent to council members, Kenneth Kloo, remediation management director at the state Department of Environmental Protection, expressed his confidence in the clean up by The ELM Group, a licensed site remediation professional which acts with DEP authority.
The ELM Group oversaw remediation of the site and MT2, a company that specializes in remediating firing range sites, performed the work, Kloo said. DEP officials made two site visits and confirmed the cleanup met state standards.
“The extent of contamination has been established and a large area of soil has already been remediated,” Kloo wrote.
In 2011, the Italian-American Sportsmen’s Club agreed to sell the property to Sharbell Development, which plans to build 52 single-family homes on the land. The club would retain a few acres to operate its clubhouse and some amenities.
But the project has been held up for years after initial soil testing showed lead contamination created by two firing ranges once operated on the site.
Robert Avolio, an attorney representing the Italian-American Sportsmen’s Club, said contamination exists on only a small wetlands portion of the site. That area has been left untouched after the Delaware Riverkeeper Network filed a complaint alleging that the land needed to be held to a different standard.
The courts sided with the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, delaying remediation until permits were received from the DEP. Those permits were issued last month. Work is scheduled to begin next week and be completed within a few months, Avolio said.
At that point, the ELM Group will submit a remedial action report to the DEP, who will issue its own remedial action outcome, essentially authorizing Sharbell Development to begin development.
“The club chose not to remediate to marginal standards but to residential standards, and those are standards not promulgated by anyone other than DEP,” Avolio said at the council’s Tuesday night meeting. “Those are standards that allow residences to be built on the dirt. It’s the highest standard.”
But the cleanup isn’t the issue, representatives of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network said on Tuesday: It’s the testing that is at issue.
While one firing range had been thoroughly tested for lead in 73 areas, a rear firing range was sampled only 14 times, said Mike Meriney, a consultant who conducted an independent study for the Delaware Riverkeeper Network.
Meriney produced maps showing areas where most of the shots fell and noted that, on the 74,000-square-foot rear firing range, a 10,000-square-foot area was tested.
“That’s the reason why I believe the investigation is flawed,” Meriney said. “I haven’t seen a figure produced that depicts the expected shot fall areas, let alone the areas of maximum shot fall.”
Councilman Kevin Meara expressed concern with the type of testing that occurred on the site, asking for clarification whether The ELM Group had used the standard type of testing that the council had formally requested.
“I’d like to try and determine if this property has been fully investigated,” Meara said. “We’ve said all along that they would clean it to DEP standards, but they’re only going to clean what they find. It appears to me, if the sampling wasn’t all done, how can the remediation be done?”
Avolio said that site was tested less because the former firing range had been used far less often.
“The rear range was used for a much shorter time, much more infrequently and, frankly, the remediation suggests much less shot,” Avolio said.
Bearbranch Road resident Mark Meara, who has been a watchdog throughout the remediation effort, criticized the township for not taking action when it had the opportunity. In 2013, it could have demanded more testing on the rear firing range or reject The ELM Group’s “remedial action workplan” to clean up the site.
“There’s a sense of risk and I can’t understand why we would want to take on that risk versus having them do some additional sampling,” said Meara, who is the brother of Councilman Kevin Meara. “If it comes up clean, it’s clean. If it comes up contaminated, then they clean it.”
Other council members on Tuesday said they were satisfied with Kloo and Avolio’s explanation of facts, noting that the project had been thoroughly investigated by everyone from professional environmental consultants to township officials and neighbors.
“The applicant and the owner of the property have done what they need to do in addressing all those issues,” Council President Dennis Pone said. “I think you’re going to end up with a very clean property and hopefully a terrific product at the end of it.”