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U.S. to Settle with Marisol for Superfund Cleanup in Pemberton; Feds to Recover $10 Million and State $1.1 Million in Past Costs

Release Date: 01/23/2001
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(01013) NEW YORK, N.Y. – The United States has reached a proposed settlement with Marisol, Incorporated to pay approximately $11 million toward the cost of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cleanup at the Lang Property federal Superfund site in Pemberton Township. EPA removed and properly disposed of 13,200 tons of contaminated soil, and constructed a system that has treated 232 million gallons of contaminated groundwater since August 1995. In the 1970s, hazardous waste from the company was disposed of at the Lang Property, a 40-acre parcel of rural land in New Jersey's Pinelands National Reserve, one of the country’s valuable environmental resources. "The good news is that EPA’s cleanup at the Lang Property is working to restore the aquifer," EPA Acting Regional Administrator William J. Muszynski explained. "Marisol showed good faith by starting to repay the government even before the settlement was officially completed," he said. The federal government and the state of New Jersey would recover about $10 million and $1.1 million, respectively, as a result of the agreement. The agreement is embodied in a proposed Consent Decree that was lodged on Friday, January 19, in federal district court in Trenton by the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of EPA. Federal Superfund Trust monies covered 90 percent and New Jersey the remaining 10 percent of the costs for the two phases of the site cleanup. These phases included the 1988 cleanup of contaminated soil and other surface hazards, and then later, the construction and operation of the treatment system that removes volatile organic compounds and metals from the groundwater and reinjects the treated water into the underlying aquifer. "This is how the Superfund program is designed to work, enabling large cleanups to proceed for protection of public health and the environment, in this case the sensitive underlying aquifer in the Pinelands. The significant $11 million cost recovery is welcome news for the cleanup program in New Jersey," said State Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Shinn. To date, the total cost of the federal cleanup at the Lang Property site is approximately $21 million. The proposed settlement amount is based on the company’s limited ability to pay. The settlement will take effect if the judge approves it, after public comments on the agreement are received. Site History In June 1975, between 1,200 and 1,500 drums of unidentified chemical waste were discovered in a clearing at the end of the unpaved road leading to the Lang Property site. Under a state order, the site owners paid for the removal of the drums and contaminated soils from the site in 1976. However, prior to the removal, the contents of the drums were emptied into unlined pits on the site, or the contents were spilled on the ground, which caused the contamination of soils and groundwater at the site. In 1979, Burlington County and the state confirmed the site had contaminated groundwater. The Lang Property site was placed on EPA's National Priorities List of hazardous waste sites in 1983.