MIDDLETOWN — The final destination of Shadow Lake’s dredged silt, if contaminated, remains unclear.
Reports indicated that the material would be transported as fill to the site of Sayreville’s former National Lead plant, now the future location for The Point, a 400-plus-acre redevelopment project that will include housing, retail, office and entertainment uses.
However, Sayreville officials said that there will be no contaminated muck being brought to the borough, at least for now.
The Sayreville Environmental Commission convened a meeting to allay residents’ fears that contaminated material could possibly be transported to Sayreville from Middletown.
“We all agree that this is totally unacceptable if this is true,” commission Chairwoman Paula Siarkiewicz said in reference to reports that mentioned the issue.
Brian O’Neill Jr., of O’Neill Properties, and Sayreville Borough Engineer Jay Cornell met with the Environmental Commission to discuss the matter on June 23.
“What came out in the paper was a surprise to us,” O’Neill said.
In order for any material to be brought to the site, he explained, it must meet a fill protocol. A generator, in this case Middletown, would need to put together an application that contains analytical and geotechnical data about the material before anything is moved. That application, O’Neill said, would then be reviewed by several agencies to ensure the material meets the fill protocol, which is governed by sets of rules established by the state.
If the application passes these levels of inspection, then the material is approved for shipment. If not, it is rejected, O’Neill said. There is also one extra layer of quality control when it comes to transporting fill material.
“The material is tested before and once onsite to make sure it’s in compliance with the fill protocol,” O’Neill said.
Fulfilling the fill protocol, he said, is essential to determining if material can be brought to the site.
“The position has always been if it meets our protocol and it’s acceptable, we’ll look at it,” O’Neill said.
Regardless of fill protocol specifics, O’Neill said there “has been no application that’s been submitted to either us or the borough of Sayreville” for the shipment.
Cornell agreed, explaining the Middletown situation further.
“This is not soil that’s stayed sitting in a pile ready to be disposed of. This is a project that may not even happen,” Cornell said. Without proper funding, the project may not get off the ground.
“They received permits to go through and dredge this pond, but the project at this point is nowhere near started,” he said.
The only permit that was given, Cornell reiterated, was to dredge, not to transport material.
The DEP had discussions with O’Neill Properties months ago about the possibility of moving material, O’Neill said, but there has been no progress.
Also during the meeting, Siarkiewicz read a letter from the Sayreville Economic Redevelopment Agency (SERA) to the Environmental Commission, which reiterated much of what Cornell and O’Neill said. It read, in part, “There is no agreement in place at this time. … Any agreement would be subject to the strict adherence of contamination guidelines as set by the state. … SERA will do whatever is necessary to protect the interests of Sayreville.”
Residents and commission members alike also expressed anxiety over the fact that, if accepted, contaminated material would be brought to a site where cleanup of other contaminants is currently under way .
Cornell and O’Neill took time to explain this situation and the remediation efforts being undertaken. Currently, O’Neill said, there are four main sources of contamination: conventional soil contamination, contaminated groundwater, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and areas contaminated by naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMs). The NORMs came about due to ore that had been buried there after it had been crushed to make paint pigment, O’Neill said. Over time, the ore “emitted certain radioactive qualities,” he said.
“As far as the cleanup of the National Lead site, the project has gone back and forth with the state for years,” Cornell said. “There is a very strict plan that indicates how that site is cleaned up.”
The groundwater, O’Neill said, is currently undergoing remediation. For other contaminants, the soil, by law, must be shipped to designated disposal facilities, which are out of state.
All cleanup efforts, O’Neill added, are regulated by a remedial action work plan, which includes meeting the fill protocol.
At the June 27 Borough Council meeting, Mayor Kennedy O’Brien reasserted the borough’s position on receiving any contaminated material.
“It’s not coming to Sayreville,” he said simply. “We are no one’s dumping ground nor will we be anyone’s dumping ground.”