By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — A developer who dumped thousands of pounds of contaminated fill on a site off Southfield Road has received state approval for a remediation plan for the property, Township Attorney Michael Herbert said Monday.
The state Department of Environmental Protection-approved plans call for the developer, Edgewood Properties of Piscataway, to cap the majority of the 15-acre site with asphalt, clean fill and other materials.
Some fill will also be removed from 10 so-called “hot-spots” of contamination. The property will also be deed-restricted, DEP officials have said.
The deed restriction will require future owners to comply with certain restrictions, including unnecessary excavation and other activities likely to stir up contaminated fill buried under the shopping center planned for the site, according to the DEP.
Township planning officials have been instructed to work with the developer to coordinate and review the remediation efforts and the eventual construction of the shopping center, which was halted last fall when contamination was first discovered.
The plan for capping the site and removing some of the fill once again received a negative reaction from Township Council members Monday, following Mr. Herbert’s discussion of a letter announcing the DEP’s approval of the remediation plan.
Council members have continually called on Edgewood to do more than simply capping the site, adopting a resolution and sending letters to Edgewood demanding the developer remove the contaminated materials from the property.
”We just don’t want to see the contaminated soil on the property,” said Council President Will Anklowitz.
Despite those efforts, environmental protocol means that Edgewood Properties is only legally required to do what is asked of them by the DEP.
”The DEP has primary, if not exclusive jurisdiction on the remedial efforts,” Mr. Herbert said.
The source of the fill and the contamination was the old Ford Motor Co. plant in Edison. Thousands of pounds of soil were taken from the former Ford plant and trucked to the construction site. The discovery of the PCB contamination occurred last fall.
Testing showed that the levels of PCBs in some areas of the site exceeded residential cleanup standards, Mr. Herbert said.
In higher concentrations, which are not present at the site, PCBs can cause skin conditions in adults, and neurological and immunological problems in children. PCBs are frequently found in low concentrations on many construction sites, which, according to the DEP, result in acceptable, limited exposure to humans.
A total of 65,000 cubic yards of fill were used to bring the site up to grade, with around 2,500 cubic yards of that total believed to have been contaminated.
Plans for the property call for a small shopping center with a tenant list that included a daycare center, sit-down restaurant, a pharmacy and a bank, although township officials have speculated that some tenants have withdrawn from the venture.
Currently the site consists of dirt, a few curbs and some other preconstruction preparations.
The daycare area of the site will receive an extra layer of clean fill, according to the DEP. The daycare plans call for a 10,000-square-foot structure, which could hold up to 180 children, according to plans submitted to the township Planning Board.
