EPA, Department of Interior, and State of New Jersey Secure $4 Million In Funds for PCB Cleanup, Damages, and Costs at Woodbrook Road Superfund Site in New Jersey
NEW YORK - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced an agreement with Cornell Dubilier Electronics, Inc., a South Carolina-based capacitator company with manufacturing ties to New Jersey. The proposed consent decree will provide $4 million in funds for PCB cleanup, damages, and costs at the Woodbrook Road Dump Superfund site in South Plainfield, New Jersey.
"This settlement places the responsibility for a portion of this cleanup where it belongs – on the polluter,” said Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia. "This settlement will help pay for the long-term site cleanup of the Woodbrook Road Dump in New Jersey. We are particularly focused on ensuring that this site doesn’t present a threat to the community and the protected wildlife preserve area in Middlesex County.”
If and when the settlement becomes final, EPA will use the settlement funds to support ongoing efforts to address contamination at the site and protect people’s health in the long term. This effort from EPA legal and technical staff and the Department of Justice seeks to ensure that polluters are held accountable for cleaning up legacy industrial pollution. Under the proposed $4 million settlement for the Woodbrook Road Dump Site, EPA will receive $3,361,500 for site cleanup, the U.S. Department of Interior and the State will receive $265,000 for natural resource damages, and the State will receive $373,500 to resolve cost recovery claims.
In the 1940s and 1950s, the Woodbrook Road Dump accepted household and industrial waste, including electrical capacitors containing PCBs, which contaminated the surrounding soil. As a result, EPA added the site to the National Priorities List in 2003. Under EPA oversight, the property's current owner, Texas Eastern Terminal Company (TETCO), removed several PCB-contaminated capacitors, secured the site, and performed the site investigation and study that later became the basis for EPA's cleanup decision issued in 2013 and modified in 2018. EPA's final cleanup plan calls for the removal of up to 120,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and debris and the restoration of wetlands disturbed due to the cleanup work.
In 2020 EPA’s former Administrator tasked EPA with conducting an additional technical and scientific review of the cleanup plan in coordination with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. EPA is currently in the process of this review and expects to finish within the calendar year.
The consent decree, lodged in the U.S. Federal District Court of New Jersey, is subject to a 60-day comment period after which the United States will evaluate the comments and determine whether to proceed and then, if appropriate, seek final approval by the court.
For more information and to submit comments, visit: https://www.justice.gov/enrd/consent-decree/us-et-al-v-cornell-dubilier-electronics-inc
For more information, visit the Woodbrook Road Dump Superfund site profile page.
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