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Route 31 Sludge Disposal

 
Site Contact:
Margaret Gregor
On-Scene Coordinator

(gregor.margaret@epa.gov)

Site Location:
Route 31 & Rymon Road
Washington, NJ 07882
response.epa.gov/Route31Sludge

**If you received a letter from the EPA or believe that you live within the EPA’s study area and would like to discuss the EPA’s investigation, please feel welcome to reach out by call, text, or email at any time to the EPA personnel listed in the Contacts section of this page. **

The Route 31 Sludge Disposal Site is an area in the eastern portion of Warren County mostly within Washington Township, south of Washington Borough, which has been impacted by industrial per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance, also referred to as PFAS, contamination.

After the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, or NJDEP, asked the EPA to take over the investigation and cleanup of PFAS contamination in November 2024, the EPA developed a plan to swiftly protect community members from PFAS contamination within an initial study area, outlined in yellow on the map shown on this page and in the Documents section of this website. The EPA’s initial work at the site consists of three parts:

  1. Providing Bottled Water

    The EPA is distributing free bottled water to immediately protect people from exposure to PFAS contamination through drinking and cooking.

    The EPA will contact property occupants whose drinking water was already sampled by the NJDEP and PFAS was found above the EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Levels, or MCLs, to begin providing bottled water immediately. The EPA’s new MCLs are more stringent than NJDEP’s MCLs. The NJDEP will be adopting the EPA’s more stringent MCLs by 2027. Additionally, if the EPA’s current sampling finds PFAS results above the EPA MCLs, the EPA will offer bottled water immediately.

  2. Sampling Drinking Water

    The EPA is sampling wells at residential and commercial properties for free to determine if drinking water at each property in the EPA’s study area is contaminated.

    If you received a letter from the EPA about your eligibility for sampling, or you believe that you live within the study area shown on the map in the "Documents" section of this website, please return an access consent form to schedule an appointment for your drinking water to be sampled.

  3. Installing Treatment Systems

The EPA is installing individual water treatment systems to address contamination and protect residents and workers at eligible properties after they have been sampled by the EPA.

After the EPA receives the sampling results, if a property’s drinking water has contaminant levels above the EPA’s MCLs, that property will be eligible to receive a free water treatment system called a Point-of-Entry Treatment system.

The EPA will continue keeping the public informed as the investigation progresses. For more detailed information, please see the Documents section of this page which includes the EPA’s fact sheet, public meeting presentation, NJDEP referral letter to the EPA, and the access form for water sampling, bottled water provision and treatment system installation.

The EPA's current investigation is known as an integrated assessment, designed to study and address the most immediate risks to people’s health and the environment while the site is evaluated for inclusion on the EPA’s Superfund National Priorities List. If the site is added to the EPA’s National Priorities List, it would be eligible for federal funding to pay for extensive, long-term cleanup actions under the EPA’s Superfund program. Listing the site also allows for robust engagement with communities impacted by the PFAS contamination. Superfund gives the EPA strong authority to hold the polluters that will be identified as potentially responsible parties at this site responsible and accountable for the cleanup.

Background:

The NJDEP first discovered the contamination in 2019 during routine drinking water well sampling at a local businessOn November 7, 2024, the NJDEP referred the site to the EPA to address high levels of PFAS in soil and groundwater. The main source of PFAS contamination is thought to be historic waste sludge from a former textile manufacturing facility, known as Castle Creek Fabrics and Northern Dyeing Corporation. The sludge was spread over at least 45 acres of farmland from the late 1950s through the 1970s. The EPA took over and is now leading the investigation.

Definitions:

PFAS: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are a group of man-made chemicals that are not found naturally in the environment. The two types of PFAS made in the largest amounts in the United States were PFOA and PFOS. PFAS can be found in air, soil, and water as a result of manufacture and use. They do not break down in the environment very easily. PFAS can seep through the soil into groundwater and may adversely impact people’s health and the environment. See https://www.epa.gov/pfas/our-current-understanding-human-health-and-environmental-risks-pfas for more information.

MCLs: The EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Levels are science-based standards for the maximum level allowed of a contaminant in drinking water.