Flanked by Marlboro Mayor Jonathan Hornik and state Sen. Jennifer Beck, former New Jersey Gov. James Florio discuss the need for the renewal of the “polluter pays” Superfund. REBECCA MORTON MARLBORO — It has been 30 years since the federal government created the Superfund to clean up the nation’s worst toxic sites, yet New Jersey still has 111 polluted sites on the Superfund list.
On a rainy Dec. 1, officials gathered at the Imperial Oil toxic waste site in Marlboro to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Superfund.
The Superfund was created in 1980 through the enactment of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act in response to the dangers of uncontrolled or abandoned contaminated sites, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Internet website.
Imperial Oil is one of New Jersey’s 111 Superfund sites. The 15-acre property on Orchard Place was declared a federal Superfund site in the early 1980s. Remediation work on the property and off-site has been undertaken at various times during the more than 25 years since Imperial Oil was identified by the U.S. government as a contaminated location.
Contaminants found at Imperial Oil include arsenic, polychlorinated biphenyls and lead, all of which likely came from the processing of used oils on the property dating back to the 1950s. The company is no longer active.
In 2009, federal stimulus money was directed to Imperial Oil to continue the cleanup process.
State Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth and Mercer) said the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated that an additional $25 million will be needed to complete the cleanup of the property. Beck said the cleanup work is expected to be completed by late 2011.
Robert Spiegel, of the environmental group the Edison Wetlands Association, said cleanups at polluted sites across New Jersey have been restarted because of the infusion of stimulus funds. However, he cautioned that the cleanup work at the toxic sites may come to a halt once those stimulus funds dry up.
That possibility has directed attention back to the Superfund.
According to the EPA, the Superfund is the federal government’s program to clean up the nation’s hazardous waste sites.
The problem, according to those who are pushing for the cleanups to be undertaken, is that the Superfund needs to be reauthorized by Congress to continue producing money to pay for the cleanup of the toxic sites.
The reauthorization of the Superfund has remained unresolved by the U.S. government for a number of years.
The Edison Wetlands Association representatives explained that for the first 15 years of the Superfund program, the approach of holding polluters accountable for the cost of the cleanups resulted in sites throughout New Jersey being remediated.
However, the previous federal administration allowed the Superfund’s “polluter pays” funding (i.e., the person or firm who contaminated a site pays for the cleanup) to lapse, and taxpayers were left to foot the bill, according to a press release from the Edison WetlandsAssociation.
In a letter that was read at the press conference, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said he is an original sponsor of the Polluter Pays Restoration Act, which would reinstitute an excise tax on chemical and oil companies, which would be used to clean up newly uncovered toxic waste sites.
Former New Jersey Gov. James Florio, who authored the Superfund legislation 30 years ago as a member of Congress from southern New Jersey, was present to voice his support of the reauthorization of the polluter pays tax.
Florio called the assessment placed on oil and chemical companies through the polluterpays tax miniscule. He said it is important to see this aspect restored so that taxpayers are no longer footing the bill to clean up someone else’s mess.
Tina Freedman, a local environmentalist, said, “Without this federal program, all those people who drink water taken from the Englishtown aquifer (an underground source of water in the area of Imperial Oil) would be blindly impacted and their health put at risk.
Marlboro Mayor Jonathan Hornik was present and said it is difficult to understand why someone would not support the polluterpays tax. He encouraged residents to reach out to their elected officials and ask them to do what is right in reinstating the Superfund.