EPA Schedules Public Hearing on Edgewater NJ Superfund Site

August 24, 2010 - Federal environmental officials have agreed to take more public comments on a plan to contain and cap contamination at an Edgewater Superfund site, but leave the clean-up to some future redeveloper.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's approach to the old Quanta Resources Industrial site drew criticism from environmentalists as soon as it was released.

In response, the EPA has scheduled another public hearing at 7 p.m. on Sept. 13 at the American Legion Post, 1165 River Road.

New Jersey closed the Quanta site in 1981, citing hazards from more than a century of industrial pollution. Located along the Hudson River at the intersection of River and Gorge roads, the 24-acre property was a coal tar facility, then a waste oil terminal with a nearby chemical plant.

Even before heavy industrial operations began in the wake of the Civil War, industrial fill containing what are now known pollutants was used to turn marshes along the Hudson into suitable sites for piers, rail lines and factories.

More...

Fed Plan on Quanta Superfund Site in Edgewater, NJ Called a 'Band Aid Approach'

August 2, 2010 - The federal government plans to entomb much of the pollution at the Quanta Superfund site in Edgewater, drawing criticism Monday from environmentalists who called it a "Band Aid approach" to cleaning one of the most toxic sites in North Jersey.

A 70-page report from the Environmental Protection Agency calls for coal tar, arsenic and other potential cancer-causing contaminants at the River Road site to be solidified into impermeable underground blocks using techniques similar to mixing concrete.

An EPA spokeswoman said it was the best alternative since excavating soil and groundwater would be a long, costly process. It would require 12,000 trucks to haul the contamination from the former waste oil processing facility on the banks of the Hudson River and it could pollute the air in the densely-packed borough.

But environmentalists said the plan fell short of a true cleanup.

"If I lived in Edgewater, I’d be livid," said Gil Hawkins, environmental director of the Hudson River Fisherman’s Association. "This is a Band Aid approach. If they don’t remove the pollution, it’s not clean. It’s still a contaminated site."

More...

Pollution fouls Florida aquifer

December 15, 2008 - An investigation into a plume of cancer-causing chemicals under 30 blocks of downtown Orlando shows it is one of the state's most serious toxic messes and probably the hardest to clean up.

Investigators, who are nearly finished with their probe, have traced the pollution to a long-defunct refinery that for 70 years heated coal to manufacture a synthetic version of natural gas for lights, stoves and heating.

Hazardous waste left by the former plant in the Callahan neighborhood on West Robinson Street isn't thought to pose any immediate threat to existing drinking-water wells even though much of the contamination penetrated to an extraordinary depth.

More . . .

Bay Shore, New York landowners unhappy with pace of cleanup

August 16, 2008 - As National Grid moves - too slowly for some - to clean up a toxic plume on the western edge of downtown Bay Shore, the company has quietly bought an unoccupied south-of-Montauk Highway mansion laid to ruin by the century-old contamination.

It paid $3 million for the former home of Stephen Phillips, several people familiar with the transaction said, and required a nondisclosure agreement to prevent word from getting out, to no avail. The sale was confirmed at a June public meeting convened by state officials and National Grid. The seller and National Grid declined to discuss the price.

The plume stems from a former Long Island Lighting Co. plant where a natural-gas-like vapor was once manufactured for heating and lighting; the plant is long since closed but has left an underground pool of highly toxic coal tar. The plume is more than 3,500 feet long and 600 feet wide.

More . . .

No new conclusions in Liberty Hill, New Hampshire cancer report

March 26, 2008 - The report Gilford has been anticipating for the better part of the last year has finally been released and has added nothing new to what the state has already said about cancer concerns on Liberty Hill. However, what the report admits about potential exposure to past residents, visitors to the site and workers is what citizens have been concerned with all along.

More . . .

New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services visits contaminated neighborhood

February 22, 2008 - With snow covering the landscape, much like the barren waste underneath, Thursday's visit to Liberty Hill by New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Commissioner Thomas Burack was more symbolic than substantive.

Responding to complaints from town officials about a perceived lack of action on the part of the state, Burack and his DES team made the journey to Gilford in order to get a better handle on the toxic waste resting under the Liberty Hill Road neighborhood.

More . . .

Coal tar contamination causing health worries among residents and officials in New Hampshire town

January 15, 2008 - Shortly after the Liberty Hill coal tar contamination was made public there were, residents and town officials have been raising concerns over health and environmental issues. The health fear is that the toxins underneath the Gilford neighborhood might be affecting area residents.

Now, three sisters are sharing their childhood story of Liberty Hill and their bouts with chronic illnesses. Robin Allard, Kim Bolton, and Allison Stresing sisters believe their health problems are linked to the coal tar that has been under Liberty Hill for the better part of six decades.

More . . .

Residents of New Hampshire neighborhood still concerned about contamination and cancer despite assurances from state officials

November 4, 2007 - A refined government look at cancer cases among residents in the Liberty Hill Road area has determined there is no "cancer cluster" in the most recent 14-year period examined.

Residents still maintain, however, that there are a significant number of cancer cases among people living in the neighborhood, and they fear coal tar dumping in the 1950s may be to blame.

"Upon further review of more data, there is no indication of a 'cancer cluster' in Gilford, in the census blocks around Liberty Hill Road, or on lower Liberty Hill," reported Environmental Epidemiologist John Colby, who has prepared several cancer reports regarding potential links between the toxic coal tar material and cancer among residents on the hill.

A cancer cluster is defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a greater-than-expected number of cancer cases that occur within a group of people, in a geographic area, or over a period of time.

However, according to experts who conducted the Gilford study, the findings do not rule out the possibility that a small isolated group of individuals could have been affected by the environmental hazard believed to have been buried there 55 years ago.

More . . .

Residents of toxic neighborhood in Rhode Island wait and wait

October 16, 2007 - Gail Corvello figured that if she and her neighbors held out for about five years, they would be able to get out from under the nightmare of the soil contamination in the Bay Street neighborhood that has had a stranglehold on their lives since 2002.

She was wrong.

More . . .

Gilford New Hampshire residents want all coal tar contamination removed from their neighborhood

October 10, 2007 - A coal tar dumpsite off Liberty Hill Road should be entirely cleaned up, in the view of area residents and other townspeople and local officials who attended an open forum on the issue.

The comments came in response to representatives of the state Department of Environmental Services who are recommending that most, but not all of the coal tar deposit that has existed in the area for more than 50 years be removed.

While members of DES have rejected the proposal by KeySpan Energy to contain 99.95 percent of the 121,000 tons of coal tar material in the ground of the Gilford neighborhood, citizens found the monetary rationale behind not mandating complete removal of the coal tar less than satisfactory.

More . . .

Coal Tar May Affect Property Values in New Hampshire

April 16, 2007 - A proposal to contain the coal tar toxin that lies under a section of Liberty Hill may significantly reduce clean-up costs but it could also have an effect on property values, according to real estate experts.

Real Estate agent Doug Embree, for Century 21, said that if the coal tar is to remain in the ground it is likely to have an effect on homeowners living in the immediate Liberty Hill Road area.

More . . .