EPA Takes Over Laurence Harbor Superfund Site Clean-Up

OLD BRIDGE, NJ — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will take over clean-up of the Raritan Bay Slag Superfund site in the Laurence Harbor section of Old Bridge.

The Raritan Bay Slag site is actually the seawall along Raritan Bay in Laurence Harbor. The EPA will carry out remediation design plans for the site.

However, the federal government has not released a date for when they will finish. Clean-up at the site has gone on for more than a decade now, since it was first designated a Superfund site in 2009.

The Asbury Park Press quoted Acting EPA Region Administrator Walter Mugdan saying that the EPA's work on the site would "possibly" begin more than a year from now, in early 2023.

"Possibly as early as 2023 you should be able to see work underway in front of you here," Mugdan said. The $50 million project "has got to be designed very carefully, so that it can be done properly and safely."

Decades ago, a private company built the seawall and jetties using slag, which is waste from the bottom of industrial blast furnaces used to smelt metal in the late 1960s to early 1970s.

In the early 2000s, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Projection tested the area and said it found elevated levels of lead, arsenic and copper along the seawall. They also found heavy metals in the soil, sediment and Raritan Bay water around the seawall, and the entrance to Cheesequake Creek.

At the request of state of New Jersey — and this area's Congressman, Rep. Frank Pallone (D) — the federal government designated the Laurence Harbor seawall a Superfund site. This was in 2009. It was designated for short-term cleanup.

Since being designated a Superfund site, that section of the seawall has been blocked off to the public. However, the public can still use the Laurence Harbor beach and Old Bridge Waterfront Park.

Congressman Pallone announced Thursday that the EPA will take over at the site.

"This is a big day for the Old Bridge community, which will ultimately be able to use the space without fear of the health risks that come with living near a Superfund site,” said Congressman Pallone. “The EPA now has a plan to take over the Raritan Bay Slag Superfund site, which will ensure it is properly cleaned up."

Pallone is also trying to get Congress to pass his Superfund Polluter Pays Act, which would ensure polluters pay for the cleanup of Superfund sites. His bill would reinstate the full extent of the Superfund taxes on corporate polluters, which expired in 1995.

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