Blog Discussion Topics

These are the steps of the CERCLA/Superfund Processes.  They will serve as my Guidelines for this blog about the Brick Township Landfill and it's inclusion onto the NPL of Superfund Sites in New Jersey.

• Site discovery
  How the Brick Landfill site was first discovery

• NPL Ranking and Listing When the Brick Landfill was placed on the National Priorities List and why.

• Scoping
  This is the initial planning phase of the remediation and feasibility study of the Brick Landfill. Many of the planning steps begun here are continued and refined in later phases

• Site Characterization 
  Field sampling and laboratory analyses are initiated during the site characterization phase this assessment identifies the primary health and environmental threats at the site, it also provides valuable input to the development and evaluation of alternatives

• Development and Screening of Alternatives 
  This section of the process at the Brick Landfill identifies all remedial action objectives such as; identifying potential treatment, resource recovery, and containment technologies that will satisfy these objectives; screening the technologies based on their effectiveness, implementability, and cost; and assembling technologies and their associated containment or disposal requirements into alternatives for the contaminated media at the site or for the operable unit.Alternatives can be developed to address contaminated medium, a specific area of the site, or the entire site.

• Treatability Investigations 
  This the next to the last phase of the Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS) process. Treatability investigations are conducted primarily to: These provide sufficient data to allow treatment alternatives to be fully developed and evaluated and to support the remedial design of selected alternatives, reduce cost and performance uncertainties for treatment alternatives to acceptable levels so that a remedy can be selected.

• Detailed Analysis
  This is the last part of the Feasibility Study and it includes the nine evaluation criteria that will address how the Brick Landfill Site will be cleaned up to meet regulatory and CERCLA preferences the 9 include:
  
  1. overall protection of human health and the environment;
  2. compliance with ARARs (see Terms of Environment);
  3. long-term effectiveness and permanence;
  4. reduction of toxicity, mobility, or volume;
  5. short-term effectiveness;
  6. implementability;
  7. cost;
  8. State acceptance; and
  9. community acceptance.

• Record of Decision
  The Record of Decision (ROD) is a public document that explains which cleanup alternatives will be used to clean up a Superfund site. A ROD contains site history, site description, site characteristics, community participation, enforcement activities, past and present activities, contaminated media, the contaminants present, scope and role of response action and the remedy selected for cleanup. In this scetion I will discuss the contaminats found at the Brick Landfill as well as the processes prescribed for clean-up and/or remediation

• Remedial Design/Remedial Action
  Remedial Design (RD) is the phase in Brick Landfill site cleanup where the technical specifications for cleanup remedies and technologies are designed. Remedial Action (RA) follows the remedial design phase and involves the actual construction or implementation phase of Brick Landfill site cleanup

• Construction Completion
  EPA has developed the construction completions to simplify its system of categorizing sites and to better communicate the successful completion of cleanup activities. The Brick site may qualify when any necessary physical construction is complete, whether or not final cleanup levels or other requirements have been achieved or EPA has determined that the response action should be limited to measures that do not involve construction or the site qualifies for Deletion from the NPL.

• Post Construction Completion  
  The goal of Post Construction Completion activities is to ensure that Superfund response actions provide for the long-term protection of human health and the environment. EPA's Post Construction Completion activities also involve optimizing remedies to increase effectiveness and/or reduce cost without sacrificing long-term protection of human health and the environment.

• NPL Deletion
  EPA may delete a final NPL site if it determines that no further response is required to protect human health or the environment. We'll discuss how the Brick site applies or not.

• Reuse
  EPA's goal is to make sure that at every cleanup site, the Agency and its partners have an effective process and the necessary tools and information needed to fully explore future uses, before the cleanup remedy is implemented.
  In turn, EPA gives communities the best opportunity to productively use sites following cleanup.  In case of the Brick site, there have been some recommendations and local governmental actions we'll explore.

   Some information was provided by email conversation with the EPA Community Involvement Coordinator, Ms. Wanda Ayala.  The Remedial Project Coordinator - Mr. Jon Gorin for this site was unavailable for interview or comment.

  **NOTE**

  Data for this section and Blog was taken from the Remedial Investigation/Investigation Report Workplan of May 2002 Volumes 1-7 by Primary Contractor-Birdsall Engineering, Inc of Belmar, NJ.  Patricia Calvert Project manger, Thomas Rospos PE Brick Township Engineer. 

  Case # NJD 980505176 contained at the Brick Township Branch of the Ocean County Library System and from the USEPA web site for data for the Brick Landfill.