U.S. EPA to complete major phase of cleanup at New Jersey site
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on July 26, 2024, that they have demolished the heavily contaminated building at the Unimatic Manufacturing Corp. Superfund site in Fairfield, New Jersey and has finished removing contaminants from the site.
In September 2024, U.S. Army Corps contractors will dig up and remove sediment in wetlands and streams downstream from this site and will also monitor groundwater.
EPA Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia and U.S. Representative Mikie Sherrill joined state and local partners at the site to celebrate the milestone and mark the beginning of the next phase of cleanup funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).
The Unimatic Manufacturing Corporation site is one of 115 Superfund sites in New Jersey.
The metals molding facility operated machines using lubricating oil that contained polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Wastewater from the facility contaminated the on-site building, soil and groundwater, including the soil on three nearby properties.
As a result, the EPA placed the Unimatic Manufacturing Corporation site on the Superfund Program’s National Priorities List in May 2014.
Prior to the EPA’s involvement, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection oversaw the removal of approximately 5,000 tons of PCB-contaminated soil from the Unimatic property, which reduced some risk associated with the site,
However, widespread PCB- and pesticide-contaminated soil remained in the subsurface, both underneath and outside the building footprint.
In 2021, the EPA announced the cleanup off the site would advance as part of the first wave of sites to benefit from the $3.5 billion in BIL funding to help clean up polluted Superfund sites in communities.
The EPA initiated the cleanup in 2023, demolishing the former Unimatic building in May and beginning to dig up and remove contaminated soil in October of that year.
To date, the EPA has removed over 50,000 tons of PCB and pesticide contaminated soil and replaced it with clean soil.
In September 2024, the first phase of the cleanup will come to an end and the EPA will begin the second phase of cleanup work downstream of the site. The EPA will dig up and remove PCB-contaminated sediment in wetlands and streams downstream from the site and monitors groundwater.