Fair Lawn well contamination cleanup will be subject of EPA information sessions Wednesday

Stephanie Noda, NorthJersey.com
·2 min read

Residents who wish to learn more about plans to construct a groundwater treatment system for the Fair Lawn Well Field Superfund site can attend two information sessions in the borough on Wednesday.

The Environmental Protection Agency, which is overseeing the construction, will have representatives in town to answer questions at the sessions. Work on the treatment system is scheduled to start next month.

The two sessions will be held at the Fair Lawn Senior Center at 11-05 Gardiner Road. The first will run from 2 to 4 p.m. and the second from 6 to 8 p.m. The same information will be presented at the two sessions, the agency said.

The Westmoreland Well Field, which is west of Route 208, was contaminated by chemicals leaching from a nearby industrial park decades ago.

The Fair Lawn well fields that sit in a Superfund site shown in the background as Moreno Siano walks his granddaughter Kayla Stafford, 9, home from school on March 18, 2016.
The Fair Lawn well fields that sit in a Superfund site shown in the background as Moreno Siano walks his granddaughter Kayla Stafford, 9, home from school on March 18, 2016.

Fair Lawn shut down the four wells at the Superfund site in 2016 after tests showed high concentrations of 1,4-dioxane, a “likely carcinogen” that also can cause liver and kidney damage. Once complete, the new groundwater treatment system will remove volatile organic compounds, 1,4-dioxane, PFOA and PFOS from the water supply.

Volatile organic compounds are chemicals associated with a higher risk of reproductive effects and cancer after prolonged exposure, the EPA said. PFOA and PFOS are chemicals linked with kidney and testicular cancer.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection initially discovered contamination in the ground near the Westmoreland field in 1978. In 2018, the EPA announced a $19.5 million treatment plan to expand three existing pump-and-treat systems at the site.

More: NJ has the most Superfund sites in the country. What to know if you live near one

Regulators determined that the contamination was caused by chemicals leaching into the water supply from plants once run by Kodak, Fisher Scientific and Sandvik Inc. in the nearby Fair Lawn Industrial Park. Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012, the EPA said.

For more information about the project, residents can contact EPA Community Involvement Coordinator Shereen Kandil at kandil.shereen@epa.gov or visit epa.gov/superfund/fair-lawn-wellfield.

Stephanie Noda is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: noda@northjersey.com; Twitter: @snoda11

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Fair Lawn Superfund cleanup: EPA to host public information sessions