Caryn Barnes of Langan Engineering is the Licensed Site Remediation Specialist responsible for all remediation decisions for the Hercules site. Ed Meeks is the Senior Manager for Remediation at Ashland, LLC. Neither has responded to written requests for a meeting by the scientists at the Raritan Headwater Association.
HERCULES of KENVL, NJ
PROPERTY FACT SHEET – DID YOU KNOW?
The Issues at the abandoned Hercules Property
Reports and Plans for the Hercules Site, currently owned by Ashland Global, an international chemical company, are not easily available to the public.
NJDEP (NJ Department of Environmental Protection) and the LSRP (Licensed Site Remediation Professional) assigned to oversee the private cleanup of contaminants on the site should provide access to their plans and public outreach to residents and groups concerned about the natural areas on the Hercules site. There should be public information about the impacts on water quality in underground aquifers, private wells, and the downstream outflows of the Black River.
The public should be invited to review information regarding the studies of the contaminants, the natural features of the site, and the remediation plans.
The public should have opportunities to discuss potential impacts that future development may have on natural features and the Black River’s downstream communities in Roxbury. Containment of the contaminated areas of the site and stormwater runoff from the Hercules property are major concerns in addition to impacts to natural areas on site.
The Great Spring and Black River
Approximately 15 acres of wetlands on the southern portion of the former Hercules Powder Company property have been the headwaters for the Black River since the end of the last ice age; the soil remediation project is occurring within the wetland or wetland buffer zone.
The Leni Lenape natives called these 15 acres of wetland the “Great Spring.” They lived near the spring and the Black River during the summer months. The spring appears to have received little notice in the Remediation Investigation Report, and the Black River is referred to as a drainage ditch.
Roxbury’s section of the Black River is home to a rare prehistoric species of fish that has existed for over 360 million years, well before the first dinosaurs. https://aseyeseesit.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-great-spring-home-to-earths-oldest.html
The Raritan Headwaters Association has a stream monitoring location downstream from the Hercules site. Water volume measure at the monitoring site indicates that the volume of water flowing from the Hercules Property may be as much as two billion gallons per year.
The Black River in the Upper Raritan River Watershed Region is a major tributary of the North Branch Raritan River. The Raritan River is the largest river contained entirely within New Jersey.
The Raritan River system provides drinking water for more than 1.8 million New Jersey residents.
The aquifers that flow under the Hercules Property are the same aquifers providing most of the commercial drinking water in the area and most of the private well water from Roxbury Township to Hunterdon County.
The 1,059-acre Hercules property has been privately owned for over 150 years and the site of commercial explosives manufacturing since 1871. The Facility was operated by various companies until 1912, when Hercules became the sole owner.
Between 1912 and 1996, Hercules manufactured propellants and explosives such as TNT, nitroglycerin, pentaerythritol tetranitrate or PETN, smokeless powder,
ammonium nitrate fuel oil or ANFO, and other specialty products for both military and commercial applications.
Over this 94-year period, archaic manufacturing processes, pre-regulated discharges of waste material into brooks and drainage ditches on the property, open burning of toxic chemicals, and cross-contamination of the soil and water due to explosions and construction activities severely polluted the Hercules site with a wide variety of toxins.
Since this large industrial site became inactive in 1996, forests, shrublands, meadows, and wetland habitats have regenerated over most of the property and are host to a variety of fish and wildlife species, including some that are rare or endangered in the state. However, there have not been thorough biological surveys of the site.
Remedial investigations of the Hercules site by Hercules began as part of an ongoing environmental investigation on March 10, 1995, in response to a Remedial Agreement reached between the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and Hercules.
Ashland Inc., who purchased the property from Hercules, continued funding decommissioning, remediation, and environmental studies of the site under the direct supervision of a privately hired Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP) until May 2016. The 20-year contamination study culminated in the Phase II Remedial Investigation Report (RIR) submitted to the NJDEP.
The RIR found that after 20 years, areas of the property remain significantly polluted with TNT, PCBs, mercury, arsenic, and a host of other highly toxic chemicals. Different contaminants are found in excess in different areas on the property according to the manufacturing activity that took place at those locations.
In addition, many contaminants were spread throughout the site due to drainage ditches, past construction activity, burn pits, and explosions. This created mixed layering and cross-contamination. Soil samples in the TNT manufacturing area closest to Great Springs, for example, contain the highest levels of toxic TNT chemicals but also contaminants from different locations on the property.
The study also found evidence of polluted groundwater in the southwestern portion of the site. The plume appears to be stable and contained within the boundaries of the property.
The good news is that contaminated soils, sediments, and groundwater on the site remain in place and are not migrating beyond the property boundaries. This is partly attributed to the property being undisturbed by human activity for many years. This allowed for the regrowth of vegetation which stabilized the soil and prevented erosion and release of contaminates bound up in the soil and sediments.
As of 2016, the date of the environmental report, there were no contaminates entering the Black River waters flowing from the southeast corner of the property.
Soil Remediation Activity and Development Plans
Soil remediation activity and an announcement of industrial development plans for the Hercules property began in 2022 with little public disclosure or discussion of the extent to which the Hercules property remains contaminated.
Hartz Mountain Company plans to purchase over 200 acres of the Hercules land and build warehouses on a 200-acre complex near the center of the Hercules site that would serve as a protective cap over the tainted property. At a Roxbury Planning Board meeting in March, under oath, the company’s representatives were unaware of what remediation activity would take place on that site prior to it being capped by their redevelopment.
Soil remediation methods underway require the removal of vegetation overgrowth to expose and excavate contaminated soil. This soil disturbance increases the risk of releasing toxic contaminants into the surface water on the property, which flows into the Black River. There has been no public explanation of how risk factors are managed during the current remediation or development processes.
The site chosen to conduct the bioremediation of contaminated soil appears to be located within the boundaries of the Great Spring wetlands from which flows the Black River. No public explanation has been given for this decision.
The potential for significant environmental threats that the former Hercules property poses to residents of Roxbury Township and the surrounding region warrants substantial public disclosure of contamination risks and the opportunity for public participation in the Remediation and planning process.
Prepared by Dr. Kristi Macdonald, Mara Tippit, and Brian T. Lynch
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