Worried Residents Seek Answers About Howell Chemical Cleanup

HOWELL, NJ — Worry and frustration were in the voices of Howell and Farmingdale residents at a community meeting Tuesday night about the presence of hundreds of deteriorating drums containing chemicals from the former Compounders Inc. site in Howell.

The exposed and rusting drums at the seven-acre site on the border of Farmingdale at 15 Marl Road contain chemicals from an adhesive and asphalt manufacturing company in business for decades.

Their existence came to light recently after a drum fire on Feb. 9 exposed the conditions there. A federal official said yesterday the federal Department of Justice is investigating the cause of the fire.

And the federal Environmental Protection Agency is now on the site to oversee the removal of the drums. A workplan is being developed, the EPA official said, and will be shared with the public when finalized.

But the priority right now, according to Michael Mannino, onsite coordinator for the EPA, is to

• Secure the drums.
• Remove them.
• Work with the state to test soil and groundwater.
• Expand the study area to the back of the property.

The site is now fenced and has 24/7 manned security.

"The site is safer now than in the last several years," he told residents.

But nearly everyone who spoke at the meeting remained uneasy or frustrated, and Mannino, who is a county resident himself, listened to everyone's full comments and acknowledged their frustration.

They asked why, for example, they were not informed immediately about the fire - and about the existence of the dented, sometimes leaking drums at the site for years.

The meeting was led by federal and state environmental officials and local emergency and land use officials who heard from several of those who nearly filled the Howell main meeting room.

Some background information about the site and an evacuation map are posted on the township website, and a dedicated website about Marl Road will be created, officials said. You can also read a past Patch story here.

The specter of possible health damage from the site was raised repeatedly by residents. Federal EPA officials said they don't have lab results as yet on the specifics of what the chemicals are.

But the EPA's Mannino said the drums will be "re-containerized" for removal and a berm will be constructed to prevent any runoff. He also said that electronic equipment is picking up no airborne chemicals during the cleanup.

But one Farmingdale resident who spoke at the meeting said he has developed puzzling medical issues -cysts on a kidney, which he now is concerned could be related to the presence of the chemicals at the site. He even said his pet cat is very ill, and is now worried that the pet somehow came in contact with chemicals.

Other residents also expressed general concern for the air and water safety, not only since the fire but previously.

The issue of safety and the possible need for evacuation also came up at the meeting.

An evacuation map was released by the Howell Office of Emergency Management to tell Farmingdale residents where to drive to in the event of any potential emergency.

But residents said they see too many gaps in how such a plan would be implemented. Click here to see the map on the township Facebook site and you can read a previous Patch story here.

Some asked about having drills for evacuation and parents were concerned about how their children in schools near the area might be evacuated or how they can pick their children up.

History of 15 Marl Road

Information presented at the meeting showed the site had a history of various incidents and that the state Department of Environmental Protection has been monitoring it since 2012, citing mainly reporting deficiencies, not storage deficiencies.

Compounders Inc. sold the stock at the site, but not the property, in 2021, the township land use official Matthew Howard said yesterday.

He presented slides that showed the manufacturing operation began in 1979, and a first fire was reported in 1982. In 2002 there was a report of overheated resins.

Now the company is considered the party responsible for the ultimate cleanup and will work with a licensed environmental cleanup company under the eye of state officials, as laid out in federal toxic cleanup laws, the officials said.

But the federal EPA is taking the lead onsite right now and will remain so until the drums are safely removed from the site, the chemicals are assessed and the scope of the problem is determined, said Mannino, the EPA onsite coordinator.

One Farmingdale resident presented information from a DEP website that showed the site had no violations except for inspection reporting and has been under DEP review since 2012.

He asked why there was no sampling data already on file.

"How does it go from okie-dokie" to such a serious concern, the resident asked.

Evacuation concerns

Regarding an evacuation plan, another Farmingdale resident said she worked in a school system for 20 years and they had drills and specific plans on where to go and how to be provided food and water in the event of an evacuation.

She asked that residents be given specifics for such a possibility.

The plan showed a half-mile and one-mile radius from the site, but "what about two miles" or more from the site, she asked.

"I don't feel safe right now," she said.

Howell informed the community on its Facebook site about three weeks ago that the EPA was on the site of the former Compounders Inc. to clean up 200 to 300 deteriorating 55-gallon drums there.

The Howell Office of Emergency Management has issued a map it previously prepared as a precaution showing streets in Farmingdale that are in an evacuation zone of the cleanup area.

Victor Cook, head of the Office of Emergency Management in the township, spoke to residents at the meeting and has said the town was being proactive in preparing the map and that Howell immediately notified county and state environmental offices of the drums, once they were discovered at the fire.

There are schools in the evacuation zone, including Farmingdale Elementary and Howell Middle School North and others, residents noted.

Parents at the meeting asked what they should do if their children are in school in the event of any emergency.

Cook said he will coordinate with school officials and Monmouth County to ensure adequate school buses could remove students and to discuss the schools' evacuation plans.

More communication sought

One Farmingdale resident said more direct communication is needed. A lot of older people live in the town and may not have internet access.

"There was not one letter, not one knock on a door," said another Farmingdale resident, who worked in the environmental field before retiring.

Cook, of the Howell OEM, urged everyone to sign up for township alerts on their cell phones.

An EPA community relations staffer at the meeting said she will work with residents on any communication needs.

The Borough of Farmingdale has been the most affected because the Marl Road site is the last parcel in Howell, right on the border of the borough. And Cook said he will be speaking with borough officials to coordinate more information.

The Farmingdale Mayor James Daly has said, in a previous Patch story, that while the borough is being informed, "To know the real level of concern, all of this requires proper classification and cataloging and then remediation."