Wall Superfund Site Cleanup: White Swan/Sun Work Updated By EPA

WALL, NJ — Contractors were to begin to install groundwater testing wells Friday at a Superfund site here, part of a continuing federal cleanup of the White Swan/Sun Laundry and Cleaners area, the agency announced.

Nearly 20 years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency found that the two former dry cleaning operations were sources for volatile organic compound 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 agency has said.

Wall police will be on site for traffic control during lane closures anticipated on four streets: Sea Girt Avenue, Begonia Avenue, Village Road, Muller Lane, Christie Lane, and Azalea Ave., the EPA said. Access to properties near the work site will not be restricted.

The EPA is overseeing the construction and operation of a groundwater extraction and treatment system at the site.

Beginning on Friday, Aug. 25, EPA contractors will install wells and test the groundwater in the area. The tests will continue for about eight months and will help EPA assess if the treatment system will address the volatile organic compound contamination in the groundwater, the agency said.

The work needed to design the treatment system is underway. Once this engineering 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 early 2024 and will be completed around spring 2025.

Here is what residents in the area can expect in terms of activity during the work:

• 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.

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.

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.