Utility Digs Deep At Old Plant Site For Monitoring

CAPE MAY — Residents may have noticed activity in recent weeks at the site of the former coal gasification plant off St. John’s and Lafayette streets as Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) prepares to drill deep, groundwater monitoring wells.
JCP&L, which inherited the site from a succession of other gas companies, excavated a layer of soil from a property on St. John’s Street last week after the homeowner chose to demolish their house before building a new home.
JCP&L spokesperson Kelly Henry said the utility removed “the last remaining soils on her property.” The utility was unable to remove soil from the home’s crawl space while it remained.
In 2003, an average of two feet of dirt was excavated from contaminated areas for a soil remediation approved by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
At that time, soil was removed from crawl spaces on St. John and Broad streets including private homes and the housing authority property. The soil removal also continued up St. John’s Street to the corner of Lafayette Street.
Soil was also excavated in 2003 from the gas plant property next to Wise-Anderson Park.
“The work that is going on in Cape May is part of our ongoing remediation at the site,” said Henry Oct. 10. “The N.J. Department of Environmental Protection asked us to install four, deep, groundwater monitoring wells in the perimeter of the site before giving us final approval to move forward with the remediation,” Henry added.
Henry said the remediation was an ongoing process. She said JCP&L was required to follow a process with the state DEP.
“The installation of deepwater wells is a step in the right direction toward getting final approval for the remedial action,” said Henry. “We will then need to develop a more detailed plan in terms of the remediation that will require additional pre-design work.
She said the work would involve getting specifics from the soil and starting the engineering process.
“We are at the end stages of getting the conceptual approval of the remedial action and then we will start moving towards detailed planning toward that action,” said Henry.
She said residents would see work continuing as the groundwater wells are installed beginning today. The well samples will be sent to the state DEP and JCP&L will wait for final approval on the remedial action plan, said Henry.
In 2003, the city expressed an interest in owning the former gas plant properties for a parking lot or parking garage. At that time, JCP&L spokesman Dan Capriotti said contaminated ground water would have to be remediated before any change of property ownership.
He said the remediation would take a number of years.
In 2003, a JCP&L engineer, Colin Sweeney, told City Council remediation involved wet soil, not the aquifer. He said contaminated soil extends to a depth of 50-feet, and predicted soil removal would fill 23,000 truckloads.
Sweeney had classed much of the contamination as “relatively immobile.” In 2003, he said a plume of contaminated ground water extended into Cape Island Creek and crossed Lafayette Street, according to a map displayed by JCP&L. The contaminated ground water was nine- feet below the ground and was flowing from east to west, said Sweeney.
In 2003, JCP&L placed a copies of test boring and monitoring well reports in the Cape May Library. Ground water samples showed excessive levels of benzene and naphthalene and eight other compounds.
A total of seven soil samples were collected from the public housing project on Broad Street from five borings in August 2000. Benzo-anthracene and benzo-pyrene were detected at a depth of one to one and a half feet.
According to that report, benzo-anthracene was detected at 0.95 milligrams per kilogram, which is in excess of the state limit of 0.9. Benzopyrene was found at 2.6 mg/kg, higher than acceptable levels of 0.66 mg/kg.
Additional tests from crawl spaces in public housing were conducted in February 2002 with no samples exceeding state standards for polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHS).
A property, two houses northwest of the St. John’s-Lafayette Street intersection, exceeded safe levels for benzoflouranthene, benzo-pyrene and benzo-anthracene.
During tests in 2000, nine PAHs were detected in excess of acceptable levels. These PAHs were detected in 24 samples from 20 borings.
Contact Fichter at (609) 886-8600 Ext 30 or at: jfichter@cmcherald.com