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Ringwood, NJ --- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) released the following statement today through his District Aide Erik Wong at a public meeting regarding the cleanup of the Ringwood Superfund site.
"I apologize that I am unable to be here in person, but I must be in Washington to vote in Congress. I want the community to know that I am still committed to ensuring that the Ringwood site is cleaned up quickly and completely, and that everything possible is done to find out how this pollution has affected Upper Ringwood residents.
"That is why I was glad to hear in June that the office of the EPA Inspector General had accepted a request made by myself and Senators Lautenberg and Menendez to investigate what happened here at Ringwood. We know mistakes were made when this site was initially cleaned up -- now we can get a clear idea of what exactly happened and why, from the EPA's own internal watchdog.
"The Inspector General's investigation will focus on five issues: whether EPA provided proper oversight of the site delineation and cleanup activities when the site was first listed; whether the cleanup remedy selected was based on accurate data collection; what factors led to the decision to relist the site on the Superfund list and why these factors were not considered during the initial cleanup; and whether racial, cultural, or socioeconomic factors affected the investigation and initial cleanup.
"This last issue is particularly timely because the EPA also recently released their draft environmental justice assessment for the site. Unfortunately, the EPA stuck to a very rigid and inappropriate system in doing the assessment, and while they were able to call the site an "adversely impacted area," they were unable to go beyond this obvious conclusion and truly assess how racial and economic factors have been involved in what happened here.
"I have not hesitated in the past to use the phrase 'environmental racism,' and I will not hesitate to do so today. This site is a tragic story of criminal activities by a company that dumped toxic paint sludge on a nearby community. The question is would Ford have behaved the same way if this had been a different community? Would EPA have been more careful in their oversight of the cleanup? I think the answers to these questions are obvious, and I am concerned that EPA may be hiding behind bureaucratic process to avoid getting the real answers.
"We should not, however, merely focus on the past at the expense of the present and the future. I hope that EPA intends to use this public meeting to explain to the residents how they intend to ensure that the remaining work on the site is done thoroughly and quickly to eliminate continuing threats to public health.
"I also want to know exactly how EPA intends to ensure that Ford's contractor does the cleanup work properly and uses the most stringent testing methods possible to locate and eliminate contamination. Sampling done by Ford's contractor should be subject to independent verification, and they should be required to do extensive testing to ensure that the continuing contamination does not pose a threat to drinking water supplies in the area.
"The Ringwood site is now on the verge of becoming the first Superfund site in the more than 25-year history of the program to be declared clean, deleted from the National Priorities List, and then relisted. Clearly, work here has not been done right. EPA, the other agencies involved, and Ford all have a moral obligation to do everything possible to get it right this time. Anything less is unacceptable.
"While I am not able to attend this meeting in person tonight, I stand ready to assist the community as this process continues, and I hope you will not hesitate to call on me." |
