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TRENTON
-- Attorney General Anne Milgram and Department
of Environmental Protection Commissioner
Lisa P. Jackson announced today that the
State has entered into a multi-million dollar
settlement agreement that will result in
total clean-up of the 60-acre Global Landfill
Superfund site in Middlesex County.
Outlined in an Amended Consent Decree filed
with the U.S. District Court in Trenton,
the agreement involves 31 settling parties.
The 31 parties were transporters and generators
of hazardous waste, including waste haulers,
municipalities, chemical and pharmaceutical
firms and other industries whose wastes
were deposited at Global landfill.
The settlement agreement calls for approximately
$2 million in payments to the State by the
settling parties to cover past pollution
containment and site monitoring costs, as
well as Natural Resource Damages. The agreement
will also trigger release and allocation
of approximately $20 million set aside in
escrow accounts to clean up the landfill
in Old Bridge Township near Cheesequake
State Park.
“This settlement concludes many years
of litigation involving multiple parties
and provides a mechanism for resolving a
long-standing environmental, public health
and public safety threat,” said Attorney
General Milgram.
“This
is a hard won victory for the state and
for the environment that will result in
the cleanup of a Superfund site that has
long been a blight on Old Bridge,”
said Commissioner Jackson. “This agreement
will result in a better environment for
those who have had to live with this landfill
in their midst for so long. In addition,
adjacent tidal marshes and Cheesequake Creek
will be protected, meaning cleaner water
for boaters and anglers.”
Once a 30-day public comment period has
expired and the U.S. District Court approves
the Amended Consent Decree, the escrow funds
will be released for use in cleaning up
the Global property.
Under
terms of the Amended Consent Decree, the
31 settling parties must pay the State $1.1
million in past costs incurred for containment
and oversight activity at Global, and another
$745,000 for Natural Resource Damages. In
addition, the settling parties are responsible
for putting up any additional money needed
to remediate the Global site if funds already
set aside are insufficient.
Located approximately one mile west of the
Garden State Parkway, the Global Landfill
began operating in 1968. For many years
it accepted municipal, commercial and industrial
wastes – including asbestos -- as
well as septic sludge in accordance with
its State license. The landfill was closed
in 1984. Subsequent testing revealed that
volatile organic compounds were seeping
from the landfill into the wetlands. DEP
also discovered 63 drums containing hazardous
wastes buried on the site. Due to the presence
of contaminated leachate and buried drums,
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) added Global Landfill to the National
Priorities List of Superfund sites in 1989.
Since
the 1990s, DEP has been conducting pollution
containment activity, as well as soil and
water monitoring, at the landfill. In 1991,
after conducting a closure study of Global,
DEP and EPA signed a Record of Decision
(ROD) that required stabilization of the
landfill slopes and installation of a hazardous
waste cap with landfill gas and leachate
controls.
Studies
conducted by DEP have shown that shallow
ground water at Global is contaminated with
volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds,
pesticides and metals, but that these contaminants
have not created a significant ecological
impact on neighboring wetlands. Studies
have also revealed that the deeper aquifer
is contaminated with volatile and semi-volatile
organic compounds and metals at one monitoring
well location.
Based
on these findings, EPA has required long-term
monitoring of the shallow and deep aquifers,
excavation of approximately 5,000 cubic
yards of contaminated wetland sediments
(with placement of the sediments under the
landfill cap), and ecological monitoring
of the wetlands. DEP is currently working
with settling parties to design the landfill
cap and landfill gas/leachate controls.
The owner/operator of the landfill, the
Global Reclamation Company, agreed to a
cash-out settlement with DEP in 1992.
Recently
retired Deputy Attorney General Frank X.
Cardiello and current Deputy Attorney General
Franklin L. Widmann of the Division of Law’s
Cost Recovery and Natural Resource Damages
Section handled the Global matter on behalf
of the State.
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