Who contaminated Hercules site in Roxbury? Developer points finger at Dover dirt

ROXBURY — Generations of residents have passed down stories imagining what sorts of volatile materials might have been buried throughout the 1,100 acres of the long-gone Hercules munitions plant, where a developer wants to build 2.5 million square feet of warehouse space.

Planning board members were shocked to hear testimony from a remediation project manager on Wednesday who suggested the "vast majority" of contamination there was not gunpowder, dynamite, TNT or other toxic byproducts of their manufacture.

Ed Meeks, who has worked the site since 1997, said that most of the contaminants already removed from the site had originally been placed there as fill trucked in from Dover more than a century ago. The dirt was needed to level land to support the construction of a plant expansion during a period of high demand from 1915 to 1917, leading up to the United States' entry into World War I.

The historic fill from Dover "is largely driving what we are doing here," Meeks said.

Planning board chairman Charles Bautz appeared incredulous at the revelation.

"For the 100 years that you guys were over there, and all the work with explosive gunpowder, chemicals — none of it contaminated any of the earth over there?" Bautz asked.

"The explosives don't use much in the way of chemicals," Meeks said. "We had very minimal amounts on site."

'Complete untruth, a wild tale'

Meeks said that based on facility records and other data, he believes no volatile materials or contaminants were buried indiscriminately on the property. Records show material waste was incinerated at a designated burning ground.

"We never buried that stuff, that's a complete untruth, a wild tale," Meeks said.

Another board member said he had "first-hand knowledge from people who told me they did bury stuff there."

"I've walked all over this site and I can tell you it's not true," Meeks said.

Plans for warehouse park

Despite its checkered history — which includes multiple fatal explosions over the years — the property, situated just off Route 80, is one of the largest remaining tracts of buildable land in Morris County.

Meeks testified in support of the general development plan application from Hartz Mountain, which plans to purchase more than 800 acres of the property to build a warehouse park near the north end of the tract. More than 200 of those acres, on the eastern ridge, would be preserved as open space for the public, with hiking trails and an existing scenic duck pond.

A Hartz proposal to also build residential dwellings near the south end of the property has been removed from the current development plan application.

Ashland Global, which owns the site, would retain the remaining land, with the hopes that final remediation there would permit future non-residential development, Meeks said.

Meeks said it could take seven to eight years to complete the remediation of the property that Ashland will retain, but the site proposed for the warehouse park is largely remediated. Ashland remains responsible for that remediation, but the plan is to complete it with the warehouse park serving as a cap.

The board, as it has at previous meetings, continued to push for guarantees of complete remediation that would not be interrupted by potential bankruptcies or other financial considerations.

Referencing its remediation agreement with state Department of Environmental Protection, Meeks said, "We can't back out of this." He also said the company recently committed $16 million to fund continuing remediation operations.

Meeks also clarified the ownership of the Hercules property, which opened in 1871 and closed in 1996. Hercules LLC is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of chemical manufacturer Ashland Global, which purchased the site in 2009. Meeks, who was promoted to remediation project manager there in 2007, is an employee of Ashland as the Hercules LLC entity has no actual staff.

The meeting was adjourned after more than three hours. Meeks and Licensed Site Remediation Professional Caryn Barnes are expected to continue their testimony when the Hartz application continues on June 21.

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Dover dirt was main source of Hercules tract contamination in Roxbury