[CPEO-BIF] Vapor testing, Hopewell Borough, New Jersey

[Lenny Siegel]

Hopewell told cleanup to start next year

BY DARRYL R. ISHERWOOD
Trenton Times (NJ)
September 22, 2006

HOPEWELL BOROUGH -- As state officials scramble to determine if 
contamination from Hamilton's former Mercer Rubber plant caused cancer 
in hundreds of residents, another case of contaminated groundwater has 
quietly simmered in nearby Hopewell Borough.

Residents of Somerset and La fayette streets in this placid borough have 
been living with the knowledge that groundwater run ning under their 
homes has been contaminated with Trichloroe thene (TCE) from the former 
Rockwell Industries plant on Hamilton Avenue.

According to state Department of Environmental Protection officials, TCE 
levels as high as 400,000 parts per billion were found in the 
groundwater near the former plant. The state cleanup standard for TCE in 
drinking water is 1 part per billion.

...

As many as 18 homes have either been tested or will be tested, said John 
Persico of Blasland Bouck and Lee, a private Cranbury environmental 
consulting firm. So far, vapor removal systems have been installed in 
three homes and the company has purchased two homes on Somerset Street, 
rather than attempt to remediate them. Those lots, at 19 and 21 Somerset 
St., will be the site of a filtration plant designed to clean the 
groundwater.

Levels of TCE in the vapor ranged from about 8 micrograms per cubic 
meter to 50. The state standard for a safe amount of TCE in the air is 3 
micrograms per cubic meter.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1158898101284820.xml&coll=5

-- 
Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org