HILLSBOROUGH: Feds want new road at contaminated site

By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
   The federal government will try again for permission from Somerset County for a temporary easement to reach a contaminated “hot spot” on the former federal munitions depot off Mountain View Road.
   After being rebuffed on using existing roads on the site, the government has applied to township planners to build a “temporary” road to the 1 acre on the 297-acre site it wants to cap with 6 inches of clean stone.
   The stone would serve to keep people out of direct contact with the area — which was the site of a burn pit when the land was used as a military depot going back to World War II — until a final plan to clean up the entire site is developed over the next three years, at least, said attorney John Wyciskala at the Jan. 10 Planning Board meeting.
   Hillsborough Property is the owner, but the United States is responsible for cleanup of the contamination that occurred during its ownership, said Mr. Wyciskala, attorney for the General Services Depot, asset and property manager of government property.
   The area is next to more than 200 acres the township and Somerset County jointly own. They plan a state-of-the-art recreation facility.
   The hearing was continued to March 7, which will give the township time to talk to officials in Somerset County government.
   Mr. Wyciskala said the Somerset County Improvement Authority rejected a request to use existing paved interior roads on the locally owned portion of the site, forcing the GSA to ask to build its own temporary road to reach the burn pit area with dump trucks loaded with stone.
   Planning Board members questioned why they should allow a 16-foot-wide unpaved road snaking in from Mountain View Road when a good alternative exists. The road would come within 35 feet of the back line of one property on Atkinson Circle and within 75 yards of other property lines. It would require taking down 62 trees.
   Steven Sireci Jr., who was reelected board chairman that evening, summarized the issue by saying from 1942 to 1957, contaminants were burned in a pit and now, 55 years later, the board is being asked to approve a temporary road two-fifths of a mile long to reach the spot and cover it with 6 inches of stone.
   GSA’s engineer, Kevin Cahill, said the road was necessary in order to be able to reach the site with about 40 trucks of stone, which would take about four days, he said. The road later would serve as an access to check and perform ongoing maintenance on silt filters, he said.
   The road and “hot spot” lie just south of Ann Van Middlesworth Park.
   Trespassers do reach the burn area and come in direct contact with the area, Mr. Cahill said.
   He said the 15 or so acres surrounding the hot spot likely have some level of contamination, but the GSA wasn’t planning to fence the larger area until a final remediation plan is decided upon. There was no known leaching into the ground water, government officials said.