WALL TOWNSHIP — Residents driving in the area of 1322 Sea Girt Avenue in Wall in recent weeks may have noticed ongoing construction for a water treatment facility as part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) groundwater contamination cleanup project.
Township engineer Matthew Zahorsky spoke to The Coast Star about the construction which is part of the cleanup of a Superfund site from former dry cleaners White Swan Cleaners on Sea Girt Avenue and Sun Cleaners at the Manasquan Circle.
“The work being done on Sea Girt Avenue is related to the EPA cleanup known as the White Swan,” Zahorsky said. “They are installing a treatment facility at the White Swan property to effectuate the groundwater remediation in the area.”
Zahorsky also noted that information has been publicly shared with residents on the project, including a September 2024 public information session and presentation with the EPA.
According to its website, the EPA’s Superfund program is responsible for “cleaning up some of the nation’s most contaminated land and responding to environmental emergencies, oil spills and natural disasters.”
White Swan/Sun Laundry Superfund site
Beginning in August of 2023, the EPA began overseeing the construction and operation of a groundwater extraction and treatment system at the White Swan/Sun Laundry and Cleaners, Inc., Superfund site in Wall Township to address groundwater contamination on the site. The groundwater contamination extends as far north as Hannabrand Brook and Wreck Pond, and as far south as Judas Creek and Stockton Lake, according to the EPA’s website on the matter at cumulus.epa.gov.
The White Swan Cleaners and Sun Cleaners operated from around 1960 to 1991, according to the EPA’s document detailing the project at wallnj.gov/DocumentCenter. The EPA found that the former dry cleaning operations at the site are sources of volatile organic compound contamination in soil and groundwater, and the site was added to the Superfund National Priorities list in 2004.
In 2013, the EPA selected a cleanup plan that included constructing a groundwater extraction and treatment system to capture and treat the most highly contaminated groundwater at the site, as well as disposing contaminated soil from the White Swan Cleaners source area and cleaning up contaminated soil at the Sun Cleaners source area, according to the EPA.
The EPA selected the site-wide remedy in the September 2013 Record of Decision, (ROD). The remedy includes excavation and off-site disposal of contaminated soils at the White Swan Cleaners source area, in-place soil vapor extraction/air sparging of soils and shallow groundwater at the Sun Cleaners source area, construction of a groundwater extraction and treatment system to capture and treat the most highly contaminated groundwater at the site, monitored natural attenuation for less contaminated groundwater, establishment of a Classification Exception Area (CEA), to limit exposure to contaminated groundwater until groundwater meets site cleanup goals; and indoor air monitoring of buildings near groundwater contamination and installation of vapor mitigation systems, as necessary, according to the EPA’s project description at cumulus.epa.gov. The EPA finished designing the groundwater treatment system in 2020.
In August of 2023, EPA contractors began installing wells and testing the groundwater in the community, and continued testing for around eight consecutive months. According to the EPA, the tests helped assess if the proposed treatment system would address the volatile organic compound contamination in the groundwater.
Since then, the engineering design has been completed, and contractors have been actively constructing the groundwater treatment plant, laying pipes from the wells on site to the treatment system, and is expected to be completed this summer, according to the EPA’s documentation on the project.
The Coast Star was unable to get confirmation on an updated projected conclusion date of the project from the EPA by press time.
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