EPA to start work on waterline that will supply houses in Mansfield Superfund neighborhood
Byram. The site has contaminated groundwater from former dump areas at the top of a ridge west of the Stanhope-Sparta Road north to Cowboy Creek.
| 17 Aug 2021 | 03:52
Soil boring sites along the proposed waterline
Soil boring sites along the proposed waterline
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be installing a waterline to supply houses near the Mansfield Trail Dump Superfund site in Byram Township.
The site has contaminated groundwater from former dump areas at the top of a ridge west of the Stanhope-Sparta Road north to Cowboy Creek. The contamination has affected residential portable wells on Brookwood Road and Ross Road.
In September 2017, the EPA decided to remedy the problem by providing the neighborhood with public water through the installation of a waterline.
Eight soil borings will be installed along the waterline’s path on Brookwood and Ross to collect samples that will determine whether the soil will corrode the pipe.
At each location, a two-inch borehole will be drilled to six feet deep. The soil samples will be retrieved to ground surface and sampled.
The open borehole will be filled then sealed with a cement and bentonite mixture or bentonite pellets. The ground surface or asphalt road will be repaired to the conditions that existed before the contamination, to the extent possible. Any mud tracked onto the paved areas will be cleaned, ruts will be graded, and the disturbed grass area will be seeded.
The site restoration will be performed to the satisfaction of the township inspector, according to the EPA.
The drilling operation, including equipment, personnel and supporting vehicles, may occupy up to half the width of the road, the EPA said. Orange cones, signs, and physical barriers will be placed around the working area.
BACKGROUND
In 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed to add the Mansfield Trail Dump site to the National Priorities List. It was added in 2011.
According to the EPA’s public health assessment, “from 2005 to the present, drinking water from the domestic potable wells will not harm people’s health” if the wells that have Point-of-Entry Treatment systems installed. Past exposures (prior to 2005) to trichloroethylene (TCE) in domestic potable water could have harmed people’s health., according to the EPA.
From 2006 to 2008, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection collected indoor air and sub-slab soil gas samples in and below 15 residences. Although these samples indicated volatile organic compounds were not present at harmful levels at most of the sampled homes, more extensive indoor air sampling is needed to assess whether volatile organic compounds may be building up in homes yet to be tested, according to the EPA.
Once data becomes available, an evaluation to assess adverse health effects from past, current and future chronic exposures to TCE in indoor air will be made, says the EPA.
Small children are not expected to have contact with contaminated on-site soil present in the trenches. The likelihood of appreciable exposures to recreational users of a public pedestrian/bike path present on-site is low as the trenches are not readily accessible, the EPA says