**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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
business. On 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.