EPA to Test Ringwood Superfund Area for Toxins

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered more wells to test for toxic substances near the Ringwood Superfund Site. The disposal area was the location of dump waste materials from Ford Motor Company’s automobile assembly plant in Mahwah, New Jersey. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, paint sludge and waste in drums dumped was contaminated with lead, arsenic, chromium and other contaminants. Sierra Club has long been involved in efforts to clean up this site. New Jersey Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel is a former chair of the Ringwood Environmental Commission and the only person who opposed its original delisting of a Superfund Site in 1993.

“We know that this site is polluted and that there are tons of toxins down there. The complexity and the depth of the mine shafts means that these hazardous chemicals could be coming out of fissures and springs for miles around. In 1996 they found all types of volatile organic chemicals such as lead and cobalt coming out of springs throughout the site which was coming from groundwater. The mine shafts have never been cleaned up properly. Peter’s Mine goes down more than 258 feet and there are lateral shafts going of it for miles at various levels. You can smell the contamination in the Spring time; they know it’s down there but they don’t want to clean it up,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “They’re more concerned about saving Ford money than they are about cleaning up the site. There would have been a thorough clean-up if this was in Millburn or Alpine but because it’s Upper Ringwood, there’s another standard. But then again, Ford wouldn’t have dumped in Millburn or Alpine in the first place.”

We need to be sure that the areas around this Superfund Site are not being contaminated. Toxins from the site could potentially leach into the Wanaque Reservoir, which provides drinking water for three million people. A full clean-up of the site should have been done in the first place, instead of just a cap.

“This site should have been cleaned up completely from the beginning. It contains tons of paint sludge and toxic chemicals in the middle of a community that has already suffered for far too long from the effects of all these chemicals. Instead of issuing an actual clean-up plan, the EPA agreed to just cap the site. We believe leaving these chemicals in the ground is putting the community at risk and institutional controls will fail at some point. There are a lot of toxic chemicals in the mine shafts and ground water that come to the surface in the spring or when there is high ground water,” said Jeff Tittel.

Metals can leach from the contaminated site and end up in our drinking water. Capping the site keeps the toxins in the ground where they can leach into groundwater. A real clean-up would be the best way to prevent it in the first place.

“We need an appropriate cleanup that actually protects the people in Upper Ringwood and cleans up the toxic mess on our public parklands and protects our Highlands waters and the Wanaque Reservoir from the toxins on the site. The Rampough deserve better, they deserve a real clean up. If they are not going to clean up the site properly then they should move the community out. Six hundred people should not be living on this toxic waste dump for another 40 years. We oppose capping this site instead of cleaning it up properly. The people of Ringwood deserve the real cleanup,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of The New Jersey Sierra Club.