The site was proposed for inclusion on the National Priority List (NPL) in April 1999, and was placed on the NPL on July 22, 1999 with a site EPA ID of NJD980772727 and a Hazard Ranking Site Score of 50 out of 100. The Project Manger for the site is listed as Joe Gowers and the Community Involvement Coordinator is Cecilia Echols.

 

     In July of 1999 the EPA's Removal Action Branch (RAB) was sent to perform an Immediate Action to deal with sources of continuing contamination such as buried drums. It was completed in 2000. Over 28,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil was removed along with 435 drums and 11 gas containers.   

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     In August of 1999, the EPA requested the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) the health consequences. The ATSDR found that Emmell's Septic Landfill had posed a public health hazard through the pathway of groundwater ingestion during the period  in which water was used by the residents, but that since the shallow wells had been closed, there was no longer a continued risk to human health. They did recommended the EPA evaluate future impacts of the contaminant plume as it spread beyond the study area.

 

     In 1999 the EPA sought out eleven parties as being possibly involved in the site, but as of 2003 no Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) had yet been identified.

 

      For three years, beginning in 2000, the EPA began a Focused Feasibility Study (FFS) to determine if an interim action may be necessary while the full Remedial Investigation and 
Feasibility Study (RI/FS) was being conducted. Due to results of groundwater testing in monitoring wells in 2001 which showed the presence of VOCs (though not at levels above the MCL for VOCs in the residential drinking water wells), residents were moved to the municipal water supply in 2003. That same year the results of the FFS showed the contamination plume was moving deeper and to the east, and so the Remedial Action Objective (RAO) at this point would be halting migration of the plume and not the cleaning of the groundwater.

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     Thr three options taken under consideration to achieve this RAO: First, doing nothing; second, hydraulic control of the plume using extraction wells with treatment of the extracted water for VOCs; and the third, which is the same as option two with the addition of an underground vertical barrier. Option two was chosen, mainly due to its costing half of option 3 and producing nearly e same level of control.  

 

     IN 2008 the proposed plan for the site was provided as public notice in the local press and a public meeting was held in August. Public comment was taken between August and September 2008.

 

     The RI/FS was completed in 2008. This dealt with what would be labeled as Operable Unit Two which covers the further extent of the plume out to half a mile from the site. Here the RAO included restoring the groundwater and the aquifer to Groundwater Quality Standards for New Jersey. The recommendation for a selected remedy was similar to the one resulting from the FFS, Pump and Treat through extraction wells, which came to be understood as referring to Operable Unit One, but with the addition of biosparging wells down-gradient of the extraction wells to help degrade the vinyl chloride, as well as implementation of a long-term monitoring system to verify the effectiveness of the chosen remedy, and of course, a fence. Estimated costs were at $24 million at the time with a completion time frame of about twnty-five years to achieve remediation targets. The specific steps for the water remediation are detailed as follows.

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     * The extracted groundwater is treated to remove iron

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    * Groundwater is then passed through an air stripper transferring VOCs from the groundwater          to the air stream      

 

     * Treated water is then put through granular activated carbon

 

     * The resulting air stream is treated with granular activated carbon and potassium

        permanganate to remove and destroy volatile contaminants before discharge to the air.

 

     * Water is removed from the filterd iron then dried and disposed off-site

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     PCB levels outside the site never reached criteria levels and were believed to be contained within the first one of two feet of soil at the site and the immediately adjacent area, therefore the Remedial Action for the soil was chosen to be excavation and off-site disposal. 

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     A building was constructed on the site to house the treatment equipment. 

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     Operation began around 2010, and with the projected time frame of twenty-five years to completions, that would put the date of removal from the NPL around 2035, but a 2012 article in the local paper Galloway Patch said that groundwater cleanup would be completed by the end of 2013, thanks to  $3.9 million in Recovery Act Funding from the federal government which came in 2009 from the Obama administration. The main Superfund website for Emmell's does say that contaminated ground water and human exposure status is "Under Control." But it also says that construction is not complete and that  the site is not ready for its anticipated use.

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     As of today, 52 million gallons of contaminated groundwater has been treated and about 35,000 tons of PCB-contaminated soil has been removed from the site int total, with a total EPA expenditure of over $12 million.

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     Click below to learn more!

    

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