There’s still time for members of the public who feel they have something to say about a recently proposed plan from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to excavate and replace contaminated soil on residential properties in Voorhees and Gibbsboro within the Sherwin-Williams/Hilliards Creek Superfund site.
The period during which the EPA would accept public comments was originally set to expire on July 2, but due to a request from the public, the EPA recently announced the timeframe has been extended to Aug. 1.
The proposed plan, as detailed on EPA’s website and as described by EPA Remedial Project Manager Ray Klimcsak at a public meeting in June, includes excavating contaminated soil on at least 33 residential properties in Voorhees and Gibbsboro, disposing of the soil at offsite facilities equipped to properly handle the waste and then refilling excavated areas with new soil.
The soil contamination, which includes lead and arsenic, comes as a result of waterways and lands being affected by the former Sherwin-Williams paint manufacturing plant in Gibbsboro, which operated in the area from the mid 1800s until it closed in the late 1970s.
The plan, estimated to cost $14 million, would be funded by Sherwin-Williams and conducted under EPA supervision.
For those who previously read the plan on the EPA’s website or attended an EPA-hosted public meeting on June 11 at the Gibbsboro Senior Center, Klimcsak said the plan has not changed outside of the original timeframe for public comments.
Klimcsak also said he believes the extension of public comment will not affect the EPA’s plan of by the end of September reaching a Record of Decision, a final public document from the EPA that outlines the cleanup process to be used on a particular Superfund site.
“That’s still the target for the Record of Decision, and I think we’re still confident that it will get done by Sept. 30, and that was the important part of hosting the public comment meeting in June when we did because it factored in the possibility of an extension of the public comment period,” Klimcsak said.
At the June meeting, Klimcsak said after a ROD is reached, the remedial design process would begin, which the EPA’s website describes as when “technical specifications for cleanup remedies and technologies are designed.”
Also at the June meeting, Klimcsak described it as “reasonable” to estimate that within a year-and-a-half to two years, shovels could be in the ground, with the process taking about three years to finish.
Klimcsak said in the three weeks after that June meeting, a dozen or so residents took the EPA up on an offer to meet with EPA officials to ask further questions.
Klimcsak also said since that time, and throughout the original public comment period, he received comments from the public regarding the proposed plan.
According to Klimcsak, those comments would be addressed in what’s known as a “responsive summary,” which is the EPA’s response to all major comments and concerns raised by the public and which gets included in the ROD so it becomes a formal exchange.
“It won’t specifically name people, such as so-and-so said this — it will be kept anonymous, but it will cite what the comment said, and it will have a written response from the EPA,” Klimcsak said.
To view the proposed EPA plan for the Sherwin-Williams/Hilliards Creek Superfund site, visit http://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/npl/sherwin.
Until Aug. 1, written comments for the residential remediation plan may be mailed or emailed to: Ray Klimcsak, Remedial Project Manager, U.S. EPA, 290 Broadway 19th Floor, New York, New York, 10007–1866 or at [email protected].
