Source: http://www.northjersey.com, October 19, 2015
By: Scott Fallon
Scientists may try a combination of cleanup methods to eliminate the toxic groundwater that has sat under a neighborhood for three decades, but funding for those efforts remains in limbo, federal officials said last week.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to propose a cleanup plan this winter to reduce the concentration of cancer-causing chromium from a large underground plume that has prompted health concerns after it seeped into several homes and businesses.
Scientists are considering a strategy in which vegetable oil is injected underground in some areas to generate bacteria that have been shown to break down dangerous hexavalent chromium to its less toxic cousin, trivalent chromium. They would also pump water to the surface near the source of the contamination – the E.C. Electroplating plant on Clark Street – and treat it there.
“There are really only two ways to deal with this type of groundwater pollution and we’re considering using both,” said Rich Puvogel, an EPA official who has worked on the site for years.
The plan could be the long-term solution to a toxic site whose initial cleanup was mishandled by state officials, then largely forgotten for almost 30 years.
Pollution dates back to 1983 when more than 3 tons of chromium from the plant spilled into the ground. The state Department of Environmental Protection allowed E.C. Electroplating’s contractors to halt cleanup efforts in 1985 even though only 30 percent of the metal solution had been recovered.
Since then, the chromium has spread across the southwestern corner of the city, with dangerous levels detected in the basements of several homes and businesses. The plume has migrated under the Passaic River into the city of Passaic although deep enough not to be a health concern.
The site was put on the Superfund list in 2011. The EPA has since spent $5 million removing 5,700 tons of chromium-contaminated soil, 1,150 tons of concrete and 6,100 gallons of polluted water.
But although high concentrations of chromium still remain in the groundwater, the EPA does not have enough funding set aside to begin the long-term cleanup.
Garfield is likely to go on a national waiting list for money to do the work because E.C.’s former owners say they cannot pay for a cleanup. Judith Enck, the EPA regional administrator for New Jersey and New York, cited Garfield at a congressional hearing last year as a prime example of why the government needs to restore money for Superfund cleanups.
The EPA has enough money to complete its study at the site and propose a cleanup plan. A pilot study injecting vegetable oil into the groundwater showed mixed results this year.
The treatment, called in situ anaerobic bioremediation, worked well in reducing the concentration of hexavalent chromium on the outer edges of the former plant. Two wells showed concentrations plummeting almost 99 percent.
The technique was not nearly as successful on water that sits below the former plant’s footprint where chromium concentration is more than double than that of other areas. Levels dropped only by 25 percent in one test well.
The result pushed scientists toward a combined cleanup plan.
Meanwhile, testing basements for contamination has slowed to about one home every month or two mostly at the request of mortgage companies when a home is being sold, said Don Graham, an EPA official coordinating the tests. No home has tested positive for high levels of chromium in more than a year, Graham said.