Groundwater Pollution Concerns Mean County to Pay for Remediation Pros

CREST HAVEN – Competitive contracts will be sought by the county for site remediation professionals to deal with “areas of concern” regarding groundwater pollution at the county airport and former Lower Township municipal landfill, now county owned as part of the airport’s flight path. The landfill was closed prior to 1982, but it was used through the 1960s and 1970s as a dump for municipal household waste.
While the state Department of Environmental Protection oversees the monitoring of the test wells at both places, County Engineer Dale Foster told freeholders Tue., Feb. 14 that DEP has over 20,000 sites to check statewide, so it has passed the burden to site owners who must hire “licensed site remediation specialists.”
Foster said there were 13 areas of concern at the airport in addition to the former landfill.
The same “stringent standards remain in tact,” by those licensed professionals, Foster said. A positive that comes with those professionals, Foster noted, was that they may help guide the way to grants or other funding sources to help pay for the work.
The law dictates that a remediation professional be hired by the county no later than May 7, 2012. At the Feb. 14 meeting, a resolution was passed seeking expressions of interest for professionals to do the work.
Foster noted that the 878-acre airport, operated by Delaware River and Bay Authority, was once a U.S. Naval air station. Of those acres 257 are developed. He noted that a 1995 agreement for remediation has “done quite a lot.”
A January 2002 remediation strategy sent to DEP identified nine areas of major concern at the airport and seven ones of minor concern for ground water and or soil contamination with a variety of substances including heavy metals, pesticides and an array of volatile organic compounds.
He noted that some well fields for Wildwood Water Works are about a mile from the landfill area. Foster recalled for the board a 2003 lawsuit filed by the county regarding DEP’s lack of oversight in the area of groundwater pollution. He said in 2004 DEP took over conducting groundwater investigation and added monitor wells. Litigation was “dropped,” he said, since the DEP was to study the matter.
He said at present no one at DEP seems to be doing the work. “We are looking at a follow up investigation of the landfill,” said Foster.
“We have litigation against the former owners of the landfill for environmental damage,” said Freeholder Director Gerald Thornton. “Where are we as far as litigation with the previous owners?” he asked.
The county hired “outside counsel” (Sandman and Hankins), said County Counsel Barbara Bakley-Marino. She said “everything was stayed pending an investigation in 2005-06.”
Other actions: (For detailed stories see the Feb. 22 edition).
• In response to a question by Court House resident Peter Jespersen about any progress being made to study central dispatch, Thornton replied several meetings had been held locally and in Trenton. He also said a resolution will be considered by the board Feb. 28 to award a consulting contract to Tetra Tech to study all phases of a possible county central dispatch center. That study is to be done by Memorial Day 2012. Part of the unknown is how many municipalities would join such a central dispatch center.
• Unveiled a memorial for those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. It includes a cross-shaped artifact made of steel from the North Tower. Next to it is a flag whose stripes contain all the names of those killed in the Sept. 11 attack.
• Accepted award from Immigration and Customs Enforcement presented by Sheriff Gary Schaffer and Warden Donald Lombardo for a program that identifies criminal aliens at the county jail. Since 2008 the program has earned the county about $275,000 removed 143 inmates from the jail and an additional 50 others from other facilities based on the information provided by the county program.
• Heard Somers Point resident John Hill tell of his experience with EZ Pass, getting a $28 fine when he went through an exit off Atlantic City Expressway that did not afford motorists an opportunity to pay cash. He asked for freeholders’ support for an Atlantic County resolution seeking relief from the EZ Pass only toll booths. “They are taking away our liberties and it has got to stop,” Hill declared. He said former congressman and U.S. ambassador William J. Hughes told him he, too, encountered an EZ Pass problem. Difference was Hughes made calls and the matter was cleared up, not so with Hill who vowed not to let the matter rest until justice is done.