This site, a defunct automotive brake pad manufacturer, was brought to the attention of EPA by the NJDEP for a possible referral for a CERCLA removal action. An inspection by EPA OSCs and a DEP responder on 12/23/05 revealed the following hazardous materials/wastes were abandoned at the site: tons of asbestos material, tons of elemental sulphur, 1,000+ drums of mostly unknown materials or materials that do not match the label description, hundreds of smaller containers, acids, flammable liquids, iron and aluminum powders, flammable solids, waste oil, solvents, and other contaminants or pollutants. The site is semi-controlled, with most doors being locked but numerous open windows or sections of sheet metal walls missing. A maintenance man is on-site for a few hours Mon-Fri. The owner of the building (not the business) has balked at doing a cleanup, but with pressure from the DEP, he has hired a company to provide him with an estimate of the clean-up cost. The former operator of the actual manufacturing business has left the state and resumed the same business in Pennsylvania.
With verbal access from the owner of the property, on 5/26/06 a team of 4 EPA OSCs, 4 persons from the USCG Atlantic Strike Team, and 2 observers from the NJDEP accessed the Site to obtain samples from drums in Building #7 at the Site. EPA OSC sampled 3 drums of known chemicals, and the AST personnel sampled and haz-cated 6 drums of unknowns. The EPA samples were returned to Edison for lab analysis. Haz-cat results showed 2 of the samples tested + for combustibility, and 1 had a pH of 1. DEP personnel acquired one sample of an oil-like material from a sump in Building #7.
Samples will be analyzed and the results used in an Action Memo currently being drafted.
Complete Action Memo and continue to work with ORC on an enforcement strategy.
Access, unsecured and leaking drums, lack of site security, possibly unresponsive RPs.
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