Source: http://www.northjersey.com, February 4, 2016
By: Lisa Marie Segarra
One group in Montclair is hoping to clean up the township by looking beneath its surface.
In response to a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection list of environmentally contaminated sites that includes 70 areas in the township, the Montclair Environmental Commission intends to take action.
Keith Brodock, who serves as the Montclair Planning Board liaison to the MEC, is leading the initiative. Brodock presented to the information to the MEC during its regular meeting on Jan. 13.
“We’re hoping to help people understand more about what might be going on,” Brodock said.
According to Brodock, he and other MEC members will break down the list of sites.
The DEP’s list of contaminated sites in Montclair and other municipalities can be found on its website, nj.gov/dep.
DEP Press Officer Lawrence Hajna said that the list is updated regularly and is compiled from reports made to the DEP.
“We get a variety of reports from property owners, contractors, municipalities and probably more,” said Hajna. “The purpose of the list is so that people know what’s going on.”
Hajna noted reports include discharge from underground heating tanks that leak, a gas station or a service station using chemicals, or from someone testing an area and finding contamination.
Brodock said the process will involve mapping out the areas of contamination, analyzing where the contamination is coming from, how severe the levels of contamination are, and then prioritizing which sites should be looked into first. According to Brodock, ranking the severity of contamination will be based on factors such as size and whether the problem is ongoing.
“Cleaning up after a home heating tank could take one day,” Brodock said. “Other, more complex things might require years to clean up.
“If it’s issues with contaminated soil under a leaky oil tank, a simple excavation is usually the easiest way to clean up. That involves digging up the soil that is contaminated to remove it from the ground. If there is impact to groundwater, that could include pumping the groundwater out and cleaning it by injecting chemicals into water to remediate it.”
Hajna noted that the DEP has licensed site remediation officers who can work with property owners to clean contaminated sites.
“For any town or state in general, this has been an ongoing process. Contamination is part of our industrial past and even our residential past,” observed Hajna.
The plan for cleaning up contaminated areas is still in its planning phase, Brodock noted.
“Currently, I have no other details beyond having the list, but it’s a good place to start and a good thing to bring up to the commission,” Brodock said.