By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer
All work has been stopped at the Tulane Street surface parking lot construction site in downtown Princeton because Public Service Electric & Gas Co. discovered an apparent environmental contaminant last month while digging just off the site.
A PSE&G contractor “came across something that looks like some kind of fuel, whether it’s gasoline or it’s diesel fuel we’re not sure what it is,” said PSE&G spokeswomen Karen Johnson.
”They immediately stopped the job, and they notified the builder, the developer, and the state DEP,” said Ms. Johnson, referring to the state Department of Environmental Protection. “As soon as they saw the presence of some kind of petroleum-based fluid they immediately stopped, they sealed up the holes that they had already drilled or dug,” she said.
PSE&G was to bury overhead wires and conduct power grid upgrades prior to the commencement of construction of the mixed-use Building C at the site, the long-delayed second phase of the downtown redevelopment project whose first portion included the construction of a new public library and the Spring Street parking garage.
On Monday the work site was empty and a metal plate covered the filled-in hole across Tulane Street where PSE&G discovered the possible oil contamination.
Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi said there was the distinct smell of diesel fuel where the digging had occurred but its source needed to be determined. “We don’t know, it is something that is kind of bizarre, it is in the middle of the street,” Mr. Bruschi said.
Until more information is obtained there is no way to determine what remediation steps might be required, by the DEP or otherwise, Mr. Bruschi said.
On Monday morning the various parties in the development project — including developer Nassau HKT Partners, borough officials, and PSE&G — met to see what the next stop would be. The borough will retain the developer’s environmental consultant, PMK Group, who will conduct a series of test borings along the street to determine the nature and extent of the contamination, if any, Mr. Bruschi said.
Soil samples will be taken this Thursday, with about a five-day turnaround for the analysis to be done, Mr. Bruschi said.
Mr. Bruschi said, to date, the former surface parking lot which is the actual building site has come up clean of any environmental problems. Preliminary tests conducted along Spring Street also have not turned up anything out of the ordinary, Mr. Bruschi said, adding that nothing has shown up in water samples taken nearby either. This “gives us good hope that it is some kind of isolated thing,” he said.
”The critical element we have to fight is time,” Mr. Bruschi said, noting that as originally scheduled, all of PSE&G’s work requiring street closings was to have been completed by the busy holiday season to minimize traffic disruption downtown. While the contamination problem could delay the development project, the hope is that it will go forward close to the original construction schedule, he said.
”Every time you go into the ground in the borough you never know what you are going to find,” Mr. Bruschi said.
NHKT partner Jack Morrison did not return a call seeking comment.
