Health Discussion 5 Responses

1. When looking into super fund sites i actually never knew stuff like this existed in the area and that have had such an impact on certain communities. The super fund site i chose was Berkeley Township in which their wells have been the problem back in 1982. This being a horrible problem resulting from high lead levels in their water, now if they did not notice this high lead levels can lead to numerous problems that can put you into a hospital. Some symptoms that can be overlooked quite easily with other normal diagnosis which could cause you to be sent home for something you don't have. If you kept building up lead poisoning you could eventually die an you wouldn't know why until it was to late. Now when they went into trying to fix the problem they noticed it was from residential plumbing pipes causing the toxic level of water to be the problem. What they did was they closed private wells that had high level of lead poisoning and connected the homes to the public water supply. This helped curve the problem and fix the water issue this town was having, leading to the removal of this super fund site and no further clean up actions required. 

2. The superfund site I am going with is located in Massachusetts. BJAT LLC is located in Franklin, Norfolk County, Massachusetts. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, "Beginning in the late 1800s the BJAT LLC property was used for industrial operations including the manufacture of rubber and plastic products. The property has not been active since 1985. The current owner of the site has conducted four environmental investigations from 2005 to 2012. These include an Environmental Site Assessment in 2005; a Subsurface Investigation in 2007; a Site Inspection in 2008 and a Comprehensive Site Assessment in 2012. Previous investigations have found process waste and debris containing hazardous substances including metals and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) at concentrations above applicable state standards." These being the threats to the community, as these contaminants were found. This contamination also includes water plume, which posed as a hazard for people coming into contact with the soil and debris. As for the cleaning of the site, according to Franklin Matters, "The short-term work that will be conducted during the Removal Action includes: excavation, sampling, staging and covering of drums and other containers, waste and approximately 2,114 tons of contaminated soil; treatment of excavated soil on-site if appropriate; excavation of a limited number of test pits; air monitoring; and off-site shipment of waste, excavated soil, and other contaminated items that may be encountered for disposal, treatment, re-use or recycling." This site is definitely one that can be restored in my opinion if it already has not been as the site "Franklin Matters" confirmed their soon renovation.

3. Scrolling through this website I decided to search up my own town which is Garfield, NJ. I found a super fund site in which states the contamination of ground water in Garfield. When moving into this town I remember my mom telling me about this contamination because she learned of it when searching for a house. "The site consists of the E.C. Electroplating (ECE) property and a chromium groundwater plume that extends a half-mile west from the ECE property to the Passaic River" (EPA 2020). This contamination started in December of 1983, when a tank at E.C Electroplating failed and released 3,640 gallons of chromic acid into an aquifer. This obviously put Garfield residents at risk with contaminated water so the NJDEP installed a recovery well to keep this contaminated water far away. This contamination worried Garfield residents because of the harm they could possibly face. "Hexavalent Chromium (CrVI) is classified as a Group 1 human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer [1], with exposure via the inhalation route considered most potent" (Zelikoff 2019). In 2017 they added monitors to detect this contamination in order to detect the location of the chromium contamination. There is a new project set for 2021. Reading about this scares me that this contamination has gone on for so long but I have always made sure to be extra careful because of this issue. 

4. The superfund I decided to focus on is called Pierson;s Creek located in Newark, New Jersey. It is a site that is located in the industrial area Newark. The site consists of Pierson;s Creek which discharges to Newark Bay approximately 1.5 miles downstream of its headwaters, and several sources of contamination to the creek, including the Troy Chemical Corporation facility. Contamination is affecting the wetland along Pierson’s Creek. The creek, contaminated with mercury and other harmful pollutants, sits next to a plant operated by the Troy Chemical Corp. since the 1950s. According to the EPA, the company allegedly dumped untreated wastewater into the creek between 1956 and 1965, leaving the sediment laden with high levels of mercury. Mercury can build up in the tissue of fish and other wildlife and pose a threat to people who eat them. Since the Newark Bay is a part of New York/ New Jersey harbor Estuary, a sensitive area identified under the National Estuary Program. Despite the warnings and restrictions people in the surrounding area continue to eat fish caught in the NY/NJ Harbor Estuary including the Newark Bay. The Troy plant remains active at the site, where the company produces paint additives.

5. For this weeks assignment I chose to write about the Ciba-Geigy Corp site in Toms River. Superfund is an organization that cleans up contaminated sites and also holds parties responsible for the clean up or the funds it takes to clean up the site.  The Ciba-Geigy ceased manufacturing in 1990. At these sites sludge and process wastes were disposed of. 35,000 drums were disposed of in the area. Due to wastewater treatment surrounding areas were contaminated such as lagoons, and basins. The contamination has leaked into the groundwater. This caused it to spread to local towns and areas. The Enivronmental Protection Agency ordered them to clean up 12,000 drums and begin bioremediation. As of today, they treat 1.2 million gallons of water and have removed 47,000 drums. According to news sources it will take another 20 to 30 years to fully clean up the groundwater from this contamination. After 20 years so far the pollution has been reduced by 40 percent. Over this course of time 10 billion gallons of polluted ground water has been extracted and clean. This site does not currently pose any threats to humans.