Funding for local work already comitted
By:Roger Alvarado
Although the federal government may slash $8 million in funding for environmental cleanup projects at toxic Superfund sites across the country, funding is not in jeopardy for the creosote contamination cleanup project at Manville’s Rustic Mall and the nearby Claremont residential development.
Last week, Gov. James McGreevey sent a letter to U.S. Senate leadership and members of the Budget Committee urging them to support an amendment by New Jersey Senators Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg that would restore the Superfund budget. The amendment, which would have re-authorized the tax on polluters, was defeated in the U.S. Senate on March 11.
According to Gov. McGreevey, the Bush administration has been funding cleanup projects at toxic waste sites at a "dangerously slow pace," and though the 2004 Superfund budget stands at $1.257 billion, it is down $8 million from 2003.
New Jersey has 113 Superfund sites on the national priorities list, including the defunct Federal Creosote Co. in Manville.
Rich Puvogel, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency project manager for the creosote cleanup, says that at the present time enough funding has been committed to the project for the cleanup here to continue unimpeded.
"Right now we are funded for the work we need to get done in the residential community for the rest of this year," Mr. Puvogel said. "We are fully funded for the cleanup."
Mr. Puvogel says that the Rustic Mall creosote cleanup is on schedule and that the residential component is slated to conclude in May 2006.
"We will be able to provide a schedule for the remaining cleanup of the mall once we hear from the borough and people of Manville on what their decision will be for the mall," he said.
The Borough Council recently designated the mall property a "redevelopment zone," and Mr. Puvogel says that a design for the cleanup of the mall will be concluded by this spring.
"Our design for the mall anticipates that the mall will still be standing while we perform the cleanup," he said. "However if a change is made by the borough then we would have to go back and re-evaluate our design and that could take a couple more months."
The Manville Superfund site was once the site of a wood treatment company that used coal tar creosote as a preservative for railroad ties and telephone poles. The now defunct company had improperly disposed of excess creosote and byproducts by dumping them into lagoons and canals surrounding the facility.
In the 1960s, the area was developed as the Rustic Mall shopping center on South Main Street and the 137-house Claremont subdivision.
In 1998, after extensive testing, studies found the contamination levels at the site posed a significant health risk to the public. Cleanup efforts began in February 2002.
Superfund refers to environmental projects whose cleanup is paid for by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). The fund was established to assess and clean up significant environmental damage on abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites where no responsible party can be identified.