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Hudson County Chromate Project Background

Hudson County Chromate Chemical Production Waste Sites

Background

The Hudson County Chromate Chemical Production Waste Sites are located throughout Jersey City, Bayonne, Kearny, Newark and Secaucus in Hudson and Essex Counties. NJDEP has identified over 160 sites that are contaminated with chromite ore processing residue, also known as chromate waste. The chromate chemical production waste has been found at residential, commercial and industrial locations. The more than two million tons of waste disposed of over the area were generated by three chromite ore-processing plants which operated for approximately 70 years between 1905 and 1971. The three plants, located in Hudson County, were owned and operated by:

  1. PPG Industries, Inc. (PPG) at its former chromium chemical production facility location at Garfield Avenue in Jersey City.
  2. The predecessors and subsidiaries of AlliedSignal, Inc. (Allied) previously located on Route 440 in Jersey City
  3. The predecessor and subsidiaries of Occidental Chemical Corp., Maxus Energy Corp. and Chemical Land Holding, Inc. previously located on Belleville Turnpike in Kearny.

PPG, AlliedSignal and Maxus are collectively referred to as the Responsible Parties (RPs).

The chromate waste from the above facilities was used as fill in preparation for building foundations, construction of tank berms, roadway construction, filling of wetlands, sewerline construction and other construction and development projects. Chromate contamination has been found in a variety of places including the walls and floors of buildings, interior and exterior building surfaces, surfaces of driveways and parking lots and in the surface and subsurface of unpaved areas. Known chromate waste contamination at most residential sites has been remediated, two apartment complexes are still under investigation. Two-thirds of the non-residential sites are being addressed by the RPs.

In addition, using public funds, NJDEP will perform Remedial Investigations (RI) of 45 sites to delineate the extent of the contamination and identify cleanup options. These sites include 22 sites for which no RP has been identified, known as the Orphan Sites Group 1 and Group 2, and 23 sites known as the Allied Directive sites that NJDEP has determined are the responsibility of AlliedSignal, Inc., although the company has not accepted responsibility for these sites. Various Interim Remedial Measures (IRMs) were initiated by NJDEP, including capping (paving) 16 sites and fencing nine others. Interim Remedial Measures were completed at the publicly funded sites in December 1995. The RI work will consist of soil, sediment, surface water, ground water, biota (plant and animal) and building sampling and analysis. The RI work on the Allied Directive sites began in 1994. Preliminary-RI work has begun on the Orphan sites, and the RI for these sites is in progress.

Past Documents, Reports, and Updates