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RINGWOOD - State tells borough to clean up its mess
(by Teresa Edmond - Staff Writer - June 08, 2008)
RINGWOOD - The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has mandated that both Ford Motor Company and the municipality should clear away the municipal waste left on the Upper Ringwood Superfund site.
The municipality has used the Upper Ringwood area as its dumping grounds before, during and after Ford got rid of toxic sludge on the same soils around 40 years ago.
The question of who will clear away the municipal waste kept popping up at the Community Advisory Group (CAG) meetings in the past few months. At the last CAG meeting, which was May 27, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Alan Steinberg said that the DEP was deciding which party should take this task.
The DEP issued a letter to both Ford and the borough on Wednesday, June 4 expressing its decision and expects both parties to respond within 48 hours of the letter’s dispatch. That means Ford and the borough should have made up their minds by the end of Friday, June 6.
Despite the DEP’s efforts, the municipality refuses to let the mandate budge it, deciding instead to continue challenging Ford to get rid of the garbage. The municipality argues that since Ford dumped its paint sludge and has been moving the dirt around during the Superfund site’s cleanup, the automobile conglomerate should take care of the municipal waste. The borough sent a letter out to that effect on June 5.
According to John Scagnelli, an environmental attorney representing the borough, the municipality sent a response to the DEP saying that Ford should clear away the municipal waste. The borough is willing to get rid of the tires and metallic items but thinks the soils should be sampled for contamination, Scagnelli added.
As of press time Ford was still compiling a response letter to the DEP’s mandate, according to Ford spokesperson Jon Holt.
“We’ll work cooperatively with the borough in cleaning up the waste,” Holt said, but declined to give any further details at this time.
Upper Ringwood resident Vivian Milligan expressed her satisfaction with the DEP’s decision to order Ford and the borough to clear away the municipal waste because that legal wrangling has brought the cleanup process to “a standstill.”
“I’m glad they (the DEP) issued that order so they can continue cleaning this mess up, and all the contaminants that are around here,” she said.
If both Ford and the borough resolve to clear away the municipal garbage, the DEP would advise both parties to begin the task within 14 days. If one or both parties refuse, the DEP would launch the work with the Public Funded Remediations Element, a DEP bureau.
“We stand ready to do the work ourselves and reserve the right to recover money we spent on removal of solid waste,” DEP spokesman Larry Hajna said.
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