For Immediate Release
Contact: Jeff Tittel, NJ Sierra Club, 609-558-9100
Today, Attorney General Grewal and DEP Commissioner McCabe have announced multiple enforcement actions targeting 4 DuPont Sites in Pompton Lakes, Gloucester County, Pennsville, and Sayreville. They also will go after Natural Resource Damages.
“For too long DuPont has been let off the hook for not cleaning up their toxic sites in New Jersey. Not only have they not cleaned many of these sites, but where they are required to, they are cutting corners. What’s even worse it that they are not paying their fare share to the damages they have done to the environment. People have been suffering from DuPont for decades with contaminating their communities. Enforcing environmental laws and making polluters pay for their damage is critical because it acts as a deterrent. With going after NRD, DuPont has violated public trust and DEP is holding them accountable,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “It’s important that Attorney General Grewal and Commissioner McCabe are going after DuPont and will hold them accountable. Making polluters like DuPont accountable and pay for the mess they made is critical to protect the health of our communities and natural resources.”
The Attroney General filed 4 complaints on DuPont at their following sites: Pompton Lakes, Parin Facility in Sayerville, Repauno site in Gloucester County, and their Chamber Works site in Pennsville. They are also seeking damages at the Parlin and Chamber Works Site for PFAS. This is the 9th NRD case since August.
“In another broad stroke, the Attorney General and Commissioner McCabe are holding polluters accountable. It is important that they are targeting these four sites in Pompton Lakes, Sayervillle, Gloucester, and Pennsville and making DuPont clean them up. New Jersey is finally putting force in enforcement. Last year alon, they filed eight separate lawsuits on big polluters like Exxon. Just this past week, DEP ordered a directive issued to Solvay, DuPont, Dow DuPont, Chemours and 3M to require them to clean up the toxic chemicals like PFOAS and PFOS they have dumped into the environment,” said Tittel.
The contamination at Pompton Lakes can be attributed to the former DuPont munitions facility in Pompton Lakes and Wanaque. Mercury and other pollution was brought to Pompton Lakes by Acid Brook. The people of Pompton Lakes have been suffering from the legacy of DuPont’s chemical wasteland, which consists of 202 areas of concern directly adjacent to our homes, a lead and mercury laden lake, and a poisonous plume of vapor gases rising up into 450+ basements. Commissioner McCabe said that she will allow for the current system of cleanup to continue, which is letting it natural attenuation.
“People in Pompton Lakes have been living in a toxic nightmare for over 30 years and have been fighting DuPont to clean up their mess. In the toxic plume residential neighborhoods, there are elevated cancer rates. The toxic water they are pumping out could even end up in people’s homes, basements, or flooding the street. DEP mishandled the site for years and have the health of 450 families at risk who are living in on toxic plume. It is important that the Murphy Administration is requiring that DuPont moves forward on making sure this community is toxic free,” said Tittel. “DEP said that the current system is working in Pompton Lakes is working and pollution is getting less, but it’s not. Natural attenuation means that the pollution will just sit there. The Murphy Administration must come up with a through clean-up plan or buyout plan.”
One of the DuPont sites included in the NRD case is a 100-year-old hazardous wastewater treatment facility located on the sprawling 1,500-acre Chambers Works site that straddles Pennsville and Carneys Point in Salem County along the Delaware River is seeking to expand its operations. The DuPont treatment facility, now Chemours, processed commercial waste from other businesses for more than three decades but stopped in 2011.
“Carney’s Point is already suing DuPont for $1 billion for failing to cleanup more than 100 million pounds of toxic chemicals, including PFOA, mercury, benzene and ethyl chloride that were dumped at the Chambers Works site. It is important that DEP will force DuPont to clean up all of this toxic pollution immediately because the more we wait, the more toxic chemicals are seeking into the groundwater. These hazardous materials will have long-term effects on the people living nearby this facility, which is why this contamination must be completely removed. This area is a toxic nightmare spewing tons of toxic air pollution, while polluting the groundwater,” said Tittel.
DEP and the Attorney General is seeking damages for PFAS at DuPont’s site Parlin in Sayerville and its Chamber Works Site in Pennsville.
“It is important that DuPont will have to clean up their toxic mess. Sayreville is in the middle of an environmentally sensitive area. DuPont has already contaminated groundwater there with harmful chemicals like PFOAs and mercury. This area is also near a community next to homes.”
The last DuPont site on the list is the Chemours Repauno in Gibbstown, New Jersey. DuPont used to have chemical plant and dynamite factory at the site. The site’s groundwater and soil is now contaminated with toxic chemicals. In 2016, a town filed a lawsuit against chemical giant DuPont alleging the company avoided paying the more than $1 billion cost to clean up its hazardous waste. Chemours is a former DuPont unit that was spun off as an independent company in 2015. Under the spinoff agreement, DuPont can seek indemnification from Chemours for environmental remediation costs.
“The Repauno site in Gibbstown is on the banks on the Delaware near sensitive ecosystems like wetlands and tidal streams. Because of DuPont, this area suffered decades of contamination. Sediments in the ditches and soils at the Repauno site are contaminated with chemicals like PCBs. Groundwater at the site is also contaminated with organic compounds, such as nitrobenzene, aniline, benzene, and tetrachloroethylene,” said Tittel.
Just this week, the Department of Environmental Protection identified five companies, Solvay, DuPont, Dow DuPont, Chemours and 3M that are responsible extensive contamination. The DEP issued the directive under the authorities granted by New Jersey’s Spill Compensation and Control Act, Water Pollution Control Act and Air Pollution Control Act. The DEP established interim specific groundwater quality standards for both PFOA and PFOS, at 10 parts per trillion and will make 14ppt the actual standard. New Jersey is among the first states to pursue regulation of these compounds.
“For years no one has gone after DuPont, but in one week, New Jersey has two cases against DuPont. This is critical that DEP is going after these companies to make them clean up their mess they made. The Attorney General should be using the Spill Act to go after these sites. This is also a major step forward in cleaning up PFOAs and PFOS and enforcing New Jersey clean up laws against polluters,” said Tittel. “New Jersey has to make its our own standards for harmful chemicals in our water because we can’t trust the federal government to make stronger enough ones to protect our communities.”
New Jersey Sierra Club applauds Attorney General Grewal and Commissioner McCabe for protecting New Jersey from major polluters like DuPont. This is especially important since President Trump nominated a senior attorney at Dow Chemical Co. to lead the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) office responsible for highly contaminated Superfund sites.
“It is important that NJ holds DuPont accountable, especially when Trump won’t. Trump has already made a former DuPont representative as head of the EPA’s Superfund Site Agency. DuPont In New Jersey has political connections and have got away with too much for too long,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We thank the Attorney General Grewal and DEP Commissioner McCabe for putting the force back into enforcement. After 8 years of no action, we need to use enforcement as a deterrent and hold people accountable.”