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French's Landfill Study May Be Precursor To Rehabilitation
By Catherine Snipe
The township hopes to issue bonds to pay for a study of French's Landfill, a township dump still classified as a Superfund site.
French's Landfill, located in the Herbertsville section of town, was discovered to be contaminated in the early 1980s. Since closing, the township, along with the Environmental Protection Agency, began investigating its cleanup and possible future use.
Another study to that effect will be underway, possibly paid for by bonds. The township council will vote May 8 to issue bonds totaling $555,750.
The bonds will pay for the landfill closure site evaluation and ongoing remediation, along with the state Department of Environmental Protection's closure plan and related engineering costs.
The total cost of this stage of the project, officials said, is around $585,000.
The council approved the study earlier this year. It will look at how ideas used to rehabilitate and utilize other landfills could be applied in Brick.
The French's site, also called McCormick's dump, is between the Garden State Parkway and Sally Ike Road. The site is about 42 acres in size and is now heavily wooded. It is completely offlimits as a Superfund site.
Since closing in 1979, the landfill has been monitored and was first listed as a Superfund in 1983. When opened almost 30 years ago, the landfill was the destination for residential, commercial and construction garbage as well as septic waste.
The site has been the subject of extensive testing and monitoring for the last 20 years, including at least two site evaluations from the federal DEP.
In 1999, groundwater contamination was detected in numerous off-site locations, and the use of groundwater was banned within a mile of the landfill. Private wells in the area were sealed. The contaminant plume is approximately 367 acres, according to the township.
The extensive monitoring of the site costs the township upwards of $500,000, said council President Stephen Acropolis when the study was approved in March. The township will continue to pay for monitoring as long as the landfill remains an unused landfill.
But rather than leave the landfill unused, the township would like to find out how much it would cost to convert the landfill into usable space.
Township Administrator Scott Pezzaras said such an initiative would take some time; even a study is but a preliminary move.
The bonds to pay for the study are the next step in the process. The township will then formulate plans to see what engineers feel is possible there.
Officials would like to see whether the landfill could eventually be converted for recreational use, possibly as a park; in some areas, landfills have been converted to parks, and even golf courses.
The township would look at these and other "brownsfields" projects, which take properties with hazardous items and convert them into usable areas.
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