BRIDGEWATER, NJ - Representatives from Pfizer provided an update about the status of the American Cyanamid Superfund site in Finderne to the Bridgewater community, outlining plans for remediation of impoundments 1 and 2 through 2021 and beyond.
The cyanamid site is a total of about 435 acres, surrounded by Bridgewater and Bound Brook.
“It has a long history of operations and manufacturing that started in 1915, and operations ceased in 1999,” said Russ Downey, site project director for the remediation. “Since then, it has been the demolition of buildings and mostly remediation of the site.”
Downey said Pfizer acquired Wyeth in 2009, and part of that acquisition was the site. There’s a number of impoundments on the site, he said, and contaminants in the area include benzene, metals and other materials.
“The overall goal is we want to implement a remedy that is good for the area, and we want to make sure to enhance the assets of the property to make sure there is a net value to the community,” he said.
Over the last 10 years, Downey said, they have improved site management, and expanded security and signage of the area. They built a very large groundwater treatment facility, and have hit a number of milestones for on-site remedy.
The first focus of the presentation was on the plans for impoundments 1 and 2, with remedial design scheduled to be completed this year.
Nicholas Andreopoulos, site operations manager for impoundments 1 and 2, said they were used from 1947 to 1965 to store the byproduct of manufacturing operations. Companies were refining coal oil and putting the materials there.
The impoundments total about 4 acres, with 44,000 tons of dewatered material in the southeast section of the site.
The area, Andreopoulos said, is very acidic, and has unique physical characteristics, with a tacky viscous tar and some that is more crumbly. It is prone to flooding, he said, and adjacent to the CSX rail line.
An initial remedy demonstration was completed in 2020, and Pfizer is currently in the design phase, with additional campaigns planned for 2021 through 2025.
“We will be moving out of design this year,” he said.
First, Andreopoulos said, will be the excavation and removal of a majority of the impoundment content, and that material will then be sent offsite to a facility for destruction in a cement kiln that thermally destroys it.
“Once it is removed and destroyed offsite, stabilization and solidification will be done on the remaining soil and clay impacted by the tar,” he said. “After that, the area will be backfilled and we will put a protective cover over the entire area.”
There are a number of benefits of this remedy, Andreopoulos said, citing that it maximizes the removal of material from the flood plain.
“Then we are taking it and thermally treating it for destruction,” he said. “It is not going to a landfill.”
In addition, Andreopoulos said, with this method, it can be performed in small manageable sections that reduce the risks of air emissions and odors.
“And the work is performed without fixed equipment or infrastructure,” he said. “So in the event of flood, we can secure the area safely and not jeopardize the impoundments.”
In 2020, Andreopoulos said, they completed a remedy demonstration to confirm the process would work, and they removed a small amount of material. They excavate the tar, the acid tar then goes through a conveyor into a container for off-site shipping, and, once the container is filled, it is fully covered and the truck leaves.
“It’s a small segment of the overall impoundment that we worked on,” he said. “We sent it to an off-site facility for thermal destruction. We successfully completed that.”
Andreopoulos said there are community air monitoring stations while the work is being done to monitor for odors and other emissions. There are instruments that monitor the area, and everything is managed to ensure nothing effects the surrounding residents.
Through 2021, Andreopoulos said, they will continue the remedial design for removal, with the expectation from March through November that they will remove 6,000 tons of remaining acid tar removal.
After this year, the company can switch to remedial action to scale up from the design and demonstration.
Andreopoulos said the maximum number of trucks leaving the site each day will be three, as they leave to go offsite with the acid tar material. Right now, he said, they are only operating four days a week, but could move to five weekdays.
“And the water we collect as part of the dewatering, that gets collected and treated in the groundwater treatment facility, so we are collecting and treating everything,” he said. “And the protective cover at the end, we are still in the design phase for that, it will be some type of liner and soil for this impoundment after we have completed the acid tar removal and solidification.”
Downey also presented the status of impoundment 8, which is expected to be almost completely finished by the end of 2021. That impoundment, he said, is on Polhemus Lane.
“The facility was developed because there was a lot of remediation happening on the Superfund site,” he said. “There were decisions made, and there were impoundments that were dug up and treated and material was put in there. We are looking to close this up now because of all the records of decision that have been issued and impoundments 1 and 2 being taken off site.”
“So we have the ability to close this one up,” he added.
Once this site is closed, Downey said, they will make it more aesthetically pleasing.
Downey said they are looking to put on a permanent engineered cover, and, under the waste, there is another liner system that has the ability to collect any liquid derived from the waste.
“It can further handle it and treat it,” he said.
Once the entire impoundment is covered, they will vegetate it.
One area of it, Downey said, will also be taken down by about 30% of its height and redistributed around the rest of the impoundment, so that it will not be as high, and then they will engineer a cover for it.
Downey said there will be 6 inches of clean soil that will be vegetated, then 18 inches of clean soil and that overlies a composite layer for drainage. Under that will be a heavy plastic liner, and then some grading material over the waste itself.
“We also might look at solar panels in the future to power the treatment plant or other uses,” he said. “At the end of the day, the highest point out there today will be roughly 30 feet lower than it is now. It will be much more gradual than the sharp incline you have today, and will be contoured to manage the stormwater and much more aesthetically pleasing.”
Downey said this site is also being monitored, much like impoundments 1 and 2, and there is a point adjacent to a nearby Finderne neighborhood where they have placed another facility to monitor emissions.
“These programs are set up as we set alarms and alert levels to be less than for human health criteria,” he said. “If there is a regulatory threshold that would be impermissible to reach, we go lower so that we can prep to suppress emissions. We will be interactive with these monitors.”
The remediation work for this site will begin in March, with work being done on Monday through Friday, and some Saturdays, through June, and then only during the week for the rest of the year.
“No material will leave the site, so the only truck traffic to that impoundment will be delivery of clean fill and liners,” he said.
While the work on the cyanamid site is being done, Pfizer maintains a website with updates about the work, changes and plans, at AmCyRestoration.com. In addition, there is a repository of information maintained at the Bridgewater Township Library, with all final documents, records of decision from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and investigation information.
There are also links to information on the Bridgewater Township website, and Pfizer works to meet with neighbors in the area on a quarterly basis.
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Pfizer Presents Plans for Continued Remediation of Cyanamid Superfund Site - TAPinto.net
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