Public Can Meet One-on-One with Officials and Experts at Thursday Chromium Cleanup Meeting
By Jon Whiten • Jun 22nd, 2010 • Category: Blog, News
With the initial cleanup phase of the chromium-contaminated Garfield Avenue PPG Industries site to begin in July, the Chromium Cleanup Partnership (made up of PPG, the city and the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)) is hosting a site cleanup information session this Thursday. The meeting will be slightly different than earlier sessions, with representatives from a number of organizations on hand to talk one-on-one with folks about anything related to the cleanup, whether that’s protective measures, residential inspection, job opportunities or something else entirely.
The meeting comes as a letter from PPG sketching out the upcoming work plans is being received by residents who live near the site.
Work crews will begin by removing the nearly 2-acre concrete slab at the former 900 Garfield Ave. warehouse and then remove another similar-sized slab at the former 2 Dakota St. warehouse. Once the slabs are gone, a range of potential cleanup technologies will be tested, evaluated and compared at the two sites, with a final report being submitted to the DEP.
During this initial phase, about 36,000 tons of contaminated chrome waste is expected to be excavated and taken off-site for disposal. PPG says it has put together a “robust dust-suppression plan” to protect worker and community health, has installed fixed air monitoring stations at the cleanup site and will roll out mobile air monitoring stations as well.
Full-scale cleanup is expected to begin in 2012.
THE DETAILS
Chromium Cleanup Partnership Public Meeting; Thursday, June 24 at 6:30 pm; at the Mary McLeod Bethune Life Center, 140 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
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Jon Whiten is the founding editor of the Jersey City Independent; he now works for a public-policy nonprofit in Trenton.
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