EPA To Update Toxic Cleanup At Wall Dry Cleaners' Superfund Site

WALL, NJ — Long-term work at a Superfund site in Wall will be updated for the public Tuesday, March 21, at a meeting presented by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the agency says.

The meeting is in person at 6 p.m. at the Wall Township Municipal Court, 2700 Allaire Road, Wall, 07719, or participants can click this link and join by Zoom.

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 operated from around 1960 to 1991, the EPA has said.

The EPA placed the site on the Superfund program’s National Priorities List in 2004, according to information provided by the EPA.

The EPA said Monday the boundaries of the area 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.

However, the White Swan property has been cleaned and 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.

Since the source areas have been effectively removed, the EPA has seen a substantial decrease in the groundwater contamination levels, the agency said Monday.

Residences over the area of contamination are using a public/secure water source for potable water, the agency said Monday.

Residents can read EPA more detailed background on activities at the site on the township website here.

Here are some remediation steps that have been taken since the area was designated a Superfund site, according to the EPA:

• The EPA selected a cleanup plan in September 2013 that included constructing a groundwater extraction and treatment system to capture and treat the most highly contaminated groundwater at the site, as well as disposing contaminated soil from the White Swan Cleaners source area and cleaning up contaminated soil at the Sun Cleaners source area.
• EPA oversaw the removal of the contaminated soil at the White Swan property in 2018. At the White Swan Cleaners source area, 1322 Sea Girt Ave, 303 dump truck loads or 7,227 tons of contaminated unsaturated zone soils were excavated and disposed of as hazardous waste. The excavation was filled with clean soil and paved in May 2018.
• The Sun property cleanup is ongoing. A Soil Vapor Extraction/Air Sparging system was constructed by EPA at the former Sun Cleaners facility. The system began operations in 2016 and will operate for approximately 10 years to remove certain chemicals from the unsaturated zone soils and the upper part of the shallow groundwater aquifer. The system has been operating for over two years at the Sun Cleaner’s source area and it has removed over 2,677 pounds from the unsaturated soils at the site, according to EPA background.
• EPA finished designing the groundwater treatment system in 2020 to collect contaminated groundwater from the most highly contaminated portions of the plume. The groundwater will be pumped through underground piping to a treatment plant where the chemicals will be removed, and the clean water will likely be returned to the aquifer or discharged to a surface water body. The treatment system is expected to operate for approximately 30 years, the EPA said in its background document.

Here are some upcoming activities that are planned, the agency says:

• Beginning in April, the EPA will oversee the construction and operation of a groundwater extraction and treatment system there.
• Contractors will be working between Eighth Avenue to Route 35 and Laurel Avenue to Sea Girt Avenue.
• The work will include drilling wells, conducting tests to see how much water can be taken from each location, and testing portions of roadways. EPA does not anticipate that there will be any other impacts to the community. The work is anticipated to end in June 2025.

The former White Swan Cleaners was on Sea Girt Avenue and the former Sun Cleaners was on the Manasquan Circle, the EPA has said.

The estimated cost of the project when work began in 2013 was $19 Million. As of February 2023, the EPA cost is approximately $19.7 million of public funds, the agency said Monday.