A presumably knowledgeable source who was not directly involved in the TRRAAC controversy commented to a reporter that it was good that the old “Brick Yard” dump was being excavated and relocated as part of the rail yard relocation because this eliminated the source of ground water contamination.
NewsLanc inquired of TRRAAC concerning the accuracy of the assertion and received the below response from its attorney, William J. Cluck. His final observation is especially noteworthy.
I believe you are referring to the issue of removing the waste eliminates the source of groundwater contamination. This is one of the issues I discussed with New Era that they did not print.
First- is it more protective of public health to excavate the landfill or leave it in place and put an engineered cap on it? We never were provided an adequate opportunity to comment on this issue before DEP rushed its approval in October. We believe, with the risk of asbestos containing material being jostled by heavy equipment, that the safer approach was cap in place.
Second- the approved cleanup plan does not cleanup the contaminated groundwater. yes, excavating the landfill eliminates ONE source of the contamination, but no one is requiring F&M to excavate the waste from their side of the railroad tracks, which we believe is also contributing to the contamination of the groundwater. The metal contamination of the groundwater is probably from the Lancaster Malleable foundry waste and slag that was dumped on both sides of the rail tracks. That material was dumped as late as 1980, but ARM and DEP claim dumping ended in 1962.
Third – the “cleanup” of the groundwater is based upon a site specific standard. In this instance, they claim no one uses the groundwater, so there is no pathway of exposure.
So, when the project partners and city officials go around claiming excavation removes a source of the groundwater contamination, they are only providing half the story. If you really want to cleanup the groundwater, then require F&M to excavate the waste from its side of the tracks.
