EPA Makes Cleanup Decision Final For First Phase of Passaic River Cleanup

EPA, in consultation with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, has selected a final cleanup plan for the first stage of a two-phased project to remove dioxin-laden sediment from the lower Passaic River. The cleanup plan, outlined in an Action Memorandum, signed by EPA on January 9, 2009, involves mechanical dredging of 40,000 cubic yards of sediment with mechanical processing to dewater the sediment on land nearby. Click here for the press release.

EPA Asks Community for Input on Passaic River Cleanup Proposal

EPA is proposing a cleanup plan for the first stage of a two-phased project to remove dioxin-laden sediment from the lower Passaic River directly in front of the Diamond Alkali Superfund site in downtown Newark. The agency is seeking public input through December 19, 2008 on the proposal, which implements a June 2008 agreement between EPA, Occidental Chemical Corporation and Tierra Solutions, Inc. under which the companies agreed to remove, in two phases, a total of 200,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment from the portion of the river directly in front of the Diamond Alkali Superfund site in downtown Newark. Details of the proposal, released to the public on November 19, 2008, will be discussed at a public meeting on Tuesday, December 2, which will be held at 7:00 pm at the Hawkins Street Elementary School located at 8 Hawkins Street in the Ironbound section of Newark.

Copies of the Proposed Plan for the Lower Passaic River Phase 1 Removal Action, Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis and draft Community Involvement Plan are available on-line here.

EPA Approves Plan for Evaluating Contaminated Sediment Removal Alternatives

On June 23, 2008 EPA signed an agreement with Occidental Chemical and Tierra Solutions (Tierra) to remove 200,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment from the portion of the lower Passaic River that is right in front of the Diamond Alkali site in Newark. Pursuant to that agreement, an Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis (EE/CA) will be performed by Tierra, and overseen by EPA, to identify the goals of the contaminated sediment removal project, to analyze the various alternatives for effectiveness, cost and implementability, and to compare alternatives for consistency with federal and state requirements. As the first step in this process Tierra submitted an EE/CA Work Plan, which EPA approved on August 29, 2008. Although this plan includes a schedule of activities (see Figure 5-1), EPA's approval only applied through the submittal of the Phase 1 EE/CA, since further discussions need to be held to incorporate the required public comment period and the anticipated response to comment period. Click here to download the plan.

EPA Signs Agreement with Companies to Remove Major Source of Dioxin from the Lower Passaic River

A momentous agreement between EPA, Occidental Chemical and Tierra Solutions calls for the most significant removal of contaminated material from the Passaic in history. The settlement, announced June 23, 2008 at a park overlooking the river, involves the removal of nearly half of the dioxin that has contaminated sediment in the Passaic. It requires Occidental and Tierra Solutions to remove 200,000 cubic yards of dioxin-laden material from the portion of the river directly in front of the Diamond Alkali Superfund site in downtown Newark.

Click here to view the press release, click here to view the removal agreement, and click here to view the fact sheet.

Draft Natural Resource Damage Assessment Plan for Comment

NOAA and USFWS announce the availability of a draft Natural Resource Damage Assessment Plan for public comment. The Natural Resource Damage Assessment Plan is one step in the damage assessment process. It serves to document exposure of natural resources to hazardous substances and identify anticipated procedures for evaluating natural resource injuries potentially caused by such exposure. Click here to download the plan.

Amendment to Add Parties to EPA's June 2004 Settlement

EPA announced on July 20, 2007 in the Federal Register that it is proposing to amend an administrative settlement agreement that went into effect in June 2004, under which a group of private parties agreed to fund EPA’s performance of the remedial investigation and feasibility study (RI/FS) portion of the Lower Passaic River Restoration Project. The proposed amendment would add another 29 settling parties to the existing settlors, and would make the 71 settling parties collectively responsible for paying an additional $2,400,000 to EPA, in addition to the $10,750,000 that has already been paid under the settlement agreement. Recently, EPA entered into a separate settlement agreement with the settling parties, under which those parties have taken over the RI/FS, except for certain work that EPA is continuing to perform in relation to a focused feasibility study and the possible selection of an early action for a part of the Lower Passaic River Study Area. Click here for the amendment.

EPA Enters Into Agreement

EPA has entered into an administrative agreement with 73 potentially responsible parties (known as the "Cooperating Parties") for those parties to take over the Superfund portion of the joint Passaic River study (i.e., the remedial investigation and feasibility study). The Cooperating Parties will perform the study under EPA oversight, except for limited work that EPA is continuing to perform to develop a focused feasibility study and possibly select an early action. EPA will also continue to coordinate the Superfund portion of the study with the restoration study that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is performing with New Jersey Department of Transportation as local sponsor.
Passaic Settlement Press Release
Administrative Order on Consent
Administrative Order on Consent Scope of Work

Second Municipality Workshop Held

A second workshop for municipalities was held on July 12, 2007 in Newark, bringing together municipalities in the lower 8 miles of the Passaic River and in the Newark Bay area with federal-state partner agencies to discuss possibilities for integrating municipality plans and visions with federal-state cleanup and restoration projects. This workshop was a follow-up to the April 18, 2007 municipality workshop. Click here to find out more about the meeting by reading the work shop summary.

Workshop Held to Discuss Integration of Municipality Plans & Visions with Federal-State Cleanup & Restoration Projects

A municipalities workshop was held on April 18, 2007 in Newark, bringing together municipalities throughout the lower Passaic River and Newark Bay with federal-state partner agencies and key stakeholder groups to discuss possibilities for integrating municipality plans and visions with federal-state cleanup and restoration projects.

The partner agencies provided the more than 75 in attendance with an opportunity to initiate or continue a dialogue between waterfront municipalities and federal-state agencies. Discussions also took place on how to continue the coordination of municipal redevelopment activities with agency cleanup and restoration work. You can find out more about the meeting by reading the workshop summary.

Second Passaic River Symposium: Progress & Challenges
Held at Montclair State University; October 13, 2006

Organized by the Passaic River Institute of Montclair State University and the Hudson-Delaware Chapter, Society for Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry, the Second Passaic River Symposium attracted 300 participants, a capacity crowd, to discuss activities in the Passaic River Basin. Participants and presenters gauged what progress has been made in addressing problems in the Basin, what new efforts have been launched, and what new challenges we still face. The "Lower Passaic River Restoration Project" was prominently featured in the 2006 Symposium. Projects and issues in the upper River and tributary watersheds were also examined.

Click here for the Symposium Web Site: Symposium Agenda, Registration Form and Program Flyer

DRAFT FIELD SAMPLING PLAN VOLUME 2 RELEASED

The partner agencies have completed a draft version of Field Sampling Plan (FSP) Volume 2 for the Lower Passaic River Restoration Project. Click here for the full Draft FSP Volume 2 (65 MB) or here for a smaller file that does not include the figures (6 MB). This planning document represents an interagency effort to collect ecological and biological data that are necessary for the evaluation of restoration opportunities and components of the human health and ecological risk assessments. The Draft FSP Volume 2 will be the subject of a combined Restoration Workgroup and Sampling Workgroup Meeting that is currently being scheduled. Further details will be announced as they become available.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT PLAN FINALIZED

The partner agencies have prepared and completed the Community Involvement Plan (CIP) for the Lower Passaic River Restoration Project and Newark Bay Study. It creates a blueprint for public involvement over the life of the project.

The commitment of the partner agencies to active and open public involvement forms the basis of this document. The CIP provides a toolbox of options for keeping the public informed and for soliciting input. As a living document for a dynamic project, the CIP will be reviewed annually, and updated as needed to reflect project progress and changes to community needs, concerns, issues, and contacts.

Click here for the Final Community Involvement Plan (Due to the large size of the file, downloading may take a few minutes).

For more information about the CIP or public involvement, contact:
David Kluesner, Public Affairs
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Phone: (212) 637-3653
Fax: (212) 637-4445
Email: kluesner.dave@epa.gov

Progress of Interim Action Evaluation

On May 24, 2006 a remedial options work group held a meeting to discuss the progress of an evaluation of possible early actions to clean the Lower Passaic River. Click here for a pdf copy of the presentation.

The Future Is Now.

EPA Demonstrates Bold, New Technology That Turns Contaminated Sediment into Useable Soil

On March 24, 2006, EPA hosted an event in Woodbridge, New Jersey demonstrating an exciting new technology that takes contaminated sediment and turns it into high quality top soil. This soil washing process is patented by BioGenesis Enterprises, Inc., and has been used to treat approximately 2,269 cubic yards of sediment from the Passaic River. This project is being conducted through the USEPA/NJDOT NY/NJ Sediment Decontamination Program.

Click here to read the entire story and see photos of the process.

Lower Passaic Environmental Dredging Pilot Successfully Completed

On December 5, 2005 New Jersey DOT, EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers launched a dredging and sediment decontamination pilot of a complexity never before conducted during an on-going feasibility study. Despite the brutal winter conditions on the river, the partner agencies achieved their dredging goal of removing close to 5,000 cubic yards of sediment. Three feet of sediments contaminated with PCBs, mercury, metals and dioxin, among others, were removed from the bottom of the Passaic River in a 1.5 acre area adjacent to downtown Newark. Some of the world's finest technical experts were brought to bear on this effort. It began a two-part evaluation of environmental dredging and sediment decontamination technologies that will include the collection of data on environmental dredging technology performance, productivity, re-suspension and treatability of contaminated sediments. The pilot project even made the cover of the December 2005 edition of WORLD DREDGING Mining and Construction. (Click here for cover)
Click here to read Article
Click here to read Press Release
Click here to read Fact Sheet

Click here to read the World Dredging article

Amendment to Add Parties to EPA's RI/FS Settlement Becomes Final

Effective November 9, 2005, EPA's June 2004 administrative settlement has been amended to include 12 additional companies that will share in the estimated cost of the Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS) portion of the Lower Passaic River Restoration Project. A key benefit of the amendment is that all of the companies (both the new parties and the earlier settlors) have agreed to pay EPA $750,000 in additional funding for the RI/FS if such additional funds are needed to complete the study.
Click Here to review the amendment.
Click here to review the June 2004 AOC