Township Receives $10,000 Grant for Taylor Park Clean-Up

Millburn officials received the first of a potential two grants this week to cover the cost of the environmental clean-up in Taylor Park.

Township officials received a $10,000 grant from the Environmental Joint Insurance Fund to cover the cost, which is expected to exceed $600,000. Officials also plan to file for the Spill Compensation Fund grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection, which has no limits. But the final paperwork for the clean-up needs to be in hand before officials can file for the DEP grant.

Work removing and replacing the contaminated soil, replacing the grass and repairing the walkway is complete, but monitoring wells most likely will be needed. The number of wells and where they would be locate has yet to be finalized.

The clean-up stems from when workers found an oily sheen on the pond on April 30. An underground oil tank that was abandoned in the early 1970s is the cause of the problem. The clean-up took longer than originally expected, and officials originally thought it .

The clean-up involved digging out soil contaminated from oil that leaked from the underground tank, which has been removed. The soil is tested and was replaced by clean soil. Workers originally dug a large hole to the side of the Bauer Center in the area where the oil tank was located, and then they moved to the front of the building to dig and test the soil.