EPA To Update Public On Superfund Site Cleanup In Wall

WALL, NJ — A public meeting is planned Thursday with representatives from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to discuss the continuing cleanup at the former White Swan Cleaners Superfund site in Wall.

The public information session will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Wall Township Municipal Court, 2700 Allaire Road in Wall.

According to an EPA update, the agency is overseeing the construction and operation of a groundwater extraction and treatment system at the White Swan/Sun Laundry and Cleaners, Inc. Superfund site in Wall to address groundwater contamination at the site.

Beginning in July, contractors will install wells and test the groundwater in the community for the next eight months.

EPA will oversee this work and the tests will help EPA make sure the groundwater treatment system will address contamination.

Once the design is complete, contractors will construct the groundwater treatment plant on the former White Swan property.

Contractors will lay out pipes from the wells to the treatment system along selected streets. This work is expected to start in 2024.

The EPA in its update outlines some impacts in the neighborhood residents can expect:

• There will be equipment on the side of the road while wells are tested during the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Work will not be done on Sundays.
• There will be limited noise from the drill rig, which is a piece of heavy construction equipment.
• There will be limited noise from generators, which will be in sound reducing barriers.

Wall Township Police will support traffic control as there will be lane closures anticipated on four streets: Sea Girt Avenue, Begonia Avenue, Village Road and Muller Lane. Access to properties near the work site will not be restricted, the EPA said.

Bank of America, which became owner of the White Swan cleaners Superfund site in 2004, has agreed to a $29 million government settlement to pay for cleanup and ongoing monitoring of the site, the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced.

Nearly 20 years ago, the EPA found that two former dry cleaning operations (White Swan Cleaners and Sun Cleaners) were sources for volatile organic compound (VOC) contamination in soil and in groundwater in the area.

The dry cleaners businesses operated from around 1960 to 1991, the EPA has said. The area is bounded on the west by Route 35, on the south by Judas Creek, on the north by Hannabrand Brook and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean.

The contaminated groundwater extends as far north as Hannabrand Brook and Wreck Pond and as far south as Judas Creek and Stockton Lake, according to the EPA.

The White Swan property is no longer a source of groundwater contamination. The Sun property is in the process of being cleaned and levels of soil contamination are far lower than they were a decade ago, the EPA has said.