(AGENPARL) - Roma, 5 Settembre 2024 - (AGENPARL) – gio 05 settembre 2024 Issued: Sep 5, 2024 (9:02am EDT)
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EPA Proposes Settlement to Provide $151 Million for Cleanup of Raritan Bay
Slag Superfund Site and to Resolve Natural Resource Damage Claims
NEW YORK (Sept. 5, 2024) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
announced a proposed consent decree that would pay EPA’s past and future
costs of cleanup at the Raritan Bay Slag Superfund Site in Old Bridge Township
and Sayreville, New Jersey. The proposed consent decree requires parties
identified as potentially responsible for the site, which include NL
Industries, Inc. and its former customers, Old Bridge Township, several
federal agencies, and the state, to pay $151.1 million. EPA will receive
$132.4 million as reimbursement for past work and to pay for the remaining
cleanup work at the site. The consent decree also would resolve the claims of
the Natural Resource Trustees, which will receive $18.7 million. Natural
Resource Trustees are entities designated to act to seek compensation for
damages or loss of use of natural resources damaged by the release of a
hazardous substance into the environment. Trustees often have information and
technical expertise about the biological effects of hazardous substances, as
well as the location of sensitive species and habitats that can assist EPA.
“This settlement would allow EPA to finish this cleanup and return the
waterfront back to the community so that residents and visitors can use the
beach without being concerned about their health,” said EPA Regional
Administrator Lisa F. Garcia. “EPA looks forward to cleaning up the seawall
and jetty and making good on our commitment to protect people from exposure to
toxic lead.”
The proposed consent decree, which has been lodged in the United States
federal district court for the district of New Jersey, will be subject to
60-day public comment periods once notice is published in the Federal Register
and New Jersey Register. At the close of the comment periods, the United
States and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) will
evaluate the comments and decide whether to proceed and then, if appropriate,
seek final approval by the court.
The Raritan Bay Slag Superfund site is on the southern shore of Raritan Bay.
The site consists of the Seawall Sector, which contains a seawall about 2,300
feet long in Old Bridge Township, NJ; the Margaret’s Creek Sector, which
consists of a 47-acre wetland located immediately east of the Seawall Sector;
and the Jetty Sector, which consists of the approximately 750-foot-long
western jetty, located nearly a mile west of the seawall in adjacent
Sayreville, New Jersey.
The primary sources of contamination at the site are slag and battery casings.
The seawall and the western jetty were constructed using slag from blast
furnace bottoms from secondary smelting operations in the late 1960s to early
1970s. Battery casings were also deposited at the site, particularly in the
Margaret’s Creek Sector. The slag and battery casings resulted in high
levels of lead contamination, including along the seawall and in the sand of a
recreational beach immediately west of the seawall which resulted in the
closure of a significant portion of a recreational beach area. 
EPA issued a cleanup plan in May 2013 to excavate and dredge material
contaminated with lead at the site. EPA is addressing the three sectors in a
specific sequence to prevent recontamination of cleaned up areas. EPA
completed the Margaret’s Creek Sector cleanup in September 2018. The cleanup
included removing about 15,775 tons of soil and 1,802 tons of slag from that
portion of the site and cost about $7 million. After becoming concerned about
the quality of the engineering work being conducted by NL Industries for the
Seawall Sector, EPA took over that work, which was completed last fall. If the
settlement is finalized and when EPA receives payment, EPA can begin the
cleanup work on the Seawall Sector followed by the Jetty Sector.
For more information, and to view the proposed consent decree and to submit
comments to the United States, please visit Proposed Consent Decrees: U.S., et
al., v. NL Industries, Inc., et al.
For additional background about the site, visit the Raritan Bay Superfund
Site.