Cleaning Up the Cleanup Process in New Jersey ; 'Brownfield' Problems Call for Reforms, Officials Say

Summary

---

W.R. Grace & Co. closed its insulation factory in the heart of Hamilton Township 12 years ago and gave the site a clean bill of health.

Under new environmental cleanup rules designed to speed the reuse of industrial sites, state regulators took the company's word, never testing an ounce of the property outside of Trenton.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Cleaning Up the Cleanup Process in New Jersey ; 'Brownfield' Problems Call for Reforms, Officials Say

But there was contamination lots of it. Last year, town officials learned Grace had left behind 15,000 tons of soil riddled with extraordinarily high levels of asbestos.

"It's now not enough that a company steps forward and says, 'Here is a report from a licensed engineer.' We've all learned the hard way that can't be trusted," Hamilton Mayor Glen Gilmore said. "We're a community that's been dumped on and lied to."

In a state with at least 14,000 contaminated site...

See the full content of this document

---