For Immediate Release
Contact: Jeff Tittel, NJ Sierra Club, 609-558-9100
Today, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced that they are adding six sites to the Superfund National Priorities List. They are also proposing four more sites to be added to the list, including the Pioneer Metal Finishing Inc. facility in Franklinville, NJ. The Pioneer site is a former electroplating facility that began operations in the mid-1950’s. It was closed around 2005.
“The Pioneer Site has been polluting the environment for decades. Now the EPA is finally stepping up and will be adding it to the Superfund list. This is a good start, but it should have been done a long time ago. They were dumping sludge into the environment that contained PCBs, which are carcinogenic and a health threat to anyone living in the area. The site is also contaminated with heavy metals like chromium, copper, and nickel. This site has to be cleaned up. New Jersey should have gone after the site years ago to clean it up under New Jersey’s laws,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “Adding this site to the National Priorities List will give it the attention and, hopefully, the cleanup plan it deserves. This will help protect the communities that have been impacted by this site for far too long.”
Pioneer Metal Finishing, Inc. discharged untreated waste that contained metallic salts and process sludge into an adjacent wetland from the 1950’s until the 1970’s. According to samples conducted by the EPA and Pioneer Metal Finishing Inc, the soil near the facility and in the adjacent wetland are contaminated with chromium, copper, and nickel at levels that are unsafe for human health and the environment. The soil is also contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
“Now that this site is being added to the Superfund List, the EPA needs to make sure that there is a complete and thorough cleanup. They need to completely remove the PCBs and heavy metals from this site, not use a temporary BandAid like a cap. The EPA also needs to work with the community and do its job as quickly as possible to get this site cleaned up. These toxins are harmful to the communities living nearby and need to be completely cleaned up. The contaminants at this site, including PCBs and chromium, cause cancers, kidney problems, learning disabilities, and many more serious health problems,” said Jeff Tittel. “New Jersey has the most Superfund sites in the country, and we are also one of the most densely populated states. EPA needs to move quickly to clean up the Pioneer site and the other toxic sites in New Jersey.”
In 2019, the EPA did not have funding to begin work on 34 Superfund sites across the U.S., over 50% more than the highest figure from the Obama administration. Those sites included the Unimatic Manufacturing Corp. site as well Kauffman & Minteer, Inc in Springfield, Roebling Steel Co. in Florence, White Chemical Corp. in Newark, and Woodbrook Road Dump in South Plainfield.
“EPA needs to move quickly to fully clean up the Superfund sites in New Jersey. We need to reinstate a Superfund tax because polluters need to be held accountable for these cleanups, even if they have been abandoned. Often there is still too much pollution left in the groundwater impacting the water supply and the environment at these sites. We cannot allow these toxins to stay in the ground because they will get out impacting drinking water, streams and even worse vapors from the contamination will end up in homes affecting people’s health,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “Adding this site to the list is a good step, but the EPA needs to do more to protect public health and the environment. They need to do a full cleanup here and at the over 119 other sites we have in New Jersey.”