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Washington, D.C. --- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and U.S. Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) today asked the Inspector General of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to investigate the history of the inadequate cleanup of the Ringwood Mines/Landfill Superfund site in Ringwood, New Jersey.
The three lawmakers sent a letter today to EPA Acting Inspector General Bill A. Roderick asking that he investigate the federal agency's response to the cleanup of the site since it was listed in 1983. The Inspector General has the authority to perform audits, evaluations and investigations of EPA and its contractors.
The lawmakers asked Roderick to investigate whether the initial cleanup was adequate, and whether EPA conducted proper oversight of the cleanup until it was withdrawn from the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) in 1994. (THE LETTER IS ATTACHED.) They also asked the IG to determine whether EPA properly included members of the Upper Ringwood community in this cleanup process, and whether the improper cleanup was a result of environmental racism.
Pallone, Lautenberg and Menendez also asked the Office of the Inspector General to take an active role in the continued cleanup of the site. The lawmakers stated that the Inspector General has the authority to order the responsible party, Ford Motor Company, to pay for an independent expert to oversee the cleanup.
"Finally, we would like to request that the Office of the Inspector General retain an independent expert as special master to oversee the remainder of the cleanup process, to determine if the current cleanup plan is feasible and adequately protective of human health and the environment, and to provide independent testing results," the three lawmakers wrote.
"The failures by both EPA and the Ford Motor Company to properly clean up Ringwood cannot be ignored," Pallone said. "This is clearly a case of environmental racism, and it's time to find out what went wrong so the job can finally be finished correctly."
"The residents who live near the Ringwood Mines site deserve answers as much as they deserve a complete clean up," Lautenberg said. "If anything improper happened, they have the right to know."
"We need to find out what went wrong in Ringwood and why," Menendez said. "And we need to ensure that polluters, not taxpayers, are paying to clean up toxic waste sites. New Jersey’s families cannot afford any further delay in cleaning up this site."
During the 1960s and 1970s the Ford Motor Company and its contractors dumped automotive paint sludge, car parts and other heavy metal and chemical waste over a large area in Ringwood Borough. The site was listed on Superfund NPL list in 1983, but then was declared clean in 1994 and removed from the list. However, since 1994 EPA has forced Ford to return and conduct additional cleanup four times, and more work is still required. EPA now says it plans to reinstate Ringwood to the Superfund list, which would be the first time a Superfund site has been deleted and subsequently relisted. |
