The 3,000-square-foot Garden State Cleaners (GSC) Site and the 1.2-acre South Jersey Clothing Company (SJCC) Superfund Sites are located in Minolta, Buena Borough, Atlantic County, New Jersey. The GSC and SJCC sites were addressed jointly due to their proximity to one another and similar contamination. GSC was an active commercial dry cleaning facility that operated since 1969 until its closure in June 2011. In 1984, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) conducted an investigation that detected high levels of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE) in the soils around the facility. The GSC Site is located approximately 500 feet south of SJCC Site. SJCC was once engaged in the manufacture of military uniforms. As part of the manufacturing process, assembled garments were treated by a dry cleaning unit that utilized trichloroethylene (TCE). These operations generated TCE-contaminated wastewaters and sludges that were routinely discharged onto the ground behind a process building and along the adjacent railroad tracks. In addition, a fire in 1979 may have released an estimated 275 gallons of TCE from a storage tank located on site.
High levels of PCE and TCE were also found in wells adjacent to and down gradient from these two Superfund Sites. In 1981, various sampling efforts by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and the Atlantic County Department of Health and Institutions revealed significant contamination of groundwater and soils in the vicinity of the SJCC Site. Later the same year, a number of drums and contaminated soils were excavated and removed from the SJCC Site by the Site owners. Between 1981 and 1983, the SJCC installed 10 groundwater monitoring wells in the vicinity of the Site. In addition, SJCC installed a groundwater extraction and treatment system. Land use in the area is residential and commercial, and 75 percent of its population obtains drinking water from the Borough of Buena municipal water supply system constructed then expanded between 1985 and 1988.
EPA began an intensive investigation of the sites in 1989 to determine the nature and extent of contamination and to identify alternatives for cleanup of the sites. In September 1991, based on the results of the investigation, EPA signed a Record of Decision selecting the following remedy: (1) in-situ treatment of contaminated soil via the vapor extraction process; (2) extraction of groundwater with concentrations of VOCs above cleanup levels; (3) treatment of groundwater with an on-site air stripping column and carbon adsorption units; (4) reinjection of the treated water into the aquifer; and (5) long-term monitoring of groundwater. Follow up investigation indicated that the SVE system did not completely remove all of the sources of groundwater contamination. Soil contaminated with PCE and TCE remains above the cleanup criteria at the GSC and SJCC properties respectively. As a result, the Record of Decision was amended in September 2010. The amended remedy includes: acquisition and demolition of the Garden State Cleaners building, excavation of the contaminated soil, in-situ treatment of soil that cannot be practicably excavated.
