All News Releases By Date

U.S. EPA Selects Newark and Camden for National Superfund Site Redevelopment Pilot Program

Release Date: 07/13/2000
Contact Information:

(#00133) NEW YORK, N.Y. – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has chosen Newark and Camden, two cities with federal Superfund sites in their midst, to be part of a national redevelopment pilot program to support the future reuse of these sites after EPA cleanups are completed. The two municipalities will be awarded $100,000 to create site redevelopment plans that have broad-based community input. "We clean up Superfund sites to protect the health and environment of these communities, but we don’t want to just stop there," said EPA Regional Administrator Jeanne M. Fox. "The communities included in today’s announcement are reaching out to a promising future, and this new Superfund pilot program can be an important part of helping them grasp it," Ms. Fox explained. Newark’s White Chemical Superfund site on Frelinghuysen Avenue once housed a now abandoned chemical reformulating company. The State of New Jersey jailed its owner for improper storage practices at another facility he owned and operated in Bayonne. In September 1991, EPA added the site to its National Priorities List (NPL) of hazardous waste sites needing cleanup. The agency conducted emergency cleanups to remove chemicals at the site that posed a more immediate risk to public health and the local environment. EPA also supervised a major hazardous waste cleanup to remove the chemicals that was paid for by the parties that generated the hazardous materials left at the site. EPA is now further investigating the site to determine if those chemicals also contaminated the buildings, soil and groundwater beneath the site and what additional federal cleanup actions are needed. The 4.4-acre site is within the Newark International Airport Support Zone that is prime real estate for redevelopment. Camden’s Martin Aaron, Inc. Superfund site is an abandoned industrial facility that was last used as a drum recycling and reconditioning operation which resulted in chemical and heavy metal contamination at the site. In August 1999, EPA added the site to the NPL. Later that year, EPA and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection conducted several emergency actions that removed abandoned process equipment and drums, above-ground and underground storage tanks, and contaminated soils. EPA is conducting an investigation to determine the extent and nature of the contamination at the site. This site is located in the Waterfront South neighborhood which is a target area under an EPA supported Brownfields Pilot program and EPA’s Community Planning Health Initiative. Newark and Camden are among 40 municipalities across the country named in a national announcement today to take part in the Superfund Redevelopment Pilot Program. The Village of Roebling, with its Roebling Steel Company Superfund site, was selected by EPA last July as the first community in the state to participate in the Superfund Site Redevelopment Pilot Program. For more information about the pilot program, as well as Superfund site cleanup status and background  information, the public can visit EPA’s Website: https://www.epa.gov/region02.  Note to Editors: Reporters should call Rich Cahill at (212) 637-3675 for site specific fact sheets and local government contacts.