DuPont Appeals Clean Up Permit for Pompton Lake

DuPont is appealing the clean up process of Pompton Lake because it claims the requirements it must adhere to are “inconsistent” with established remediation procedures.

Specifically, DuPont is appealing the final clean up permit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the company in December 2012. The 30-page appeal was filed with the EPA’s Environmental Protection Agency Friday.

“The final permit has open-ended remediation requirements that are based on undetermined cleanup obligations,” said Bob Nelson, a DuPont spokesperson.

According to the appeal, the EPA added certain aspects of the clean up plan after the required public comment period had passed. DuPont wants those conditions vacated.

The EPA has ordered DuPont to from part of the lake where mercury, lead, and copper seeped into it for years. The company used to have an explosives factory on the site.

The eastern part of the lake borders Wayne.

Nelson said the permit includes “undefined clean up obligations as conditions,” which, DuPont claims, eliminates the opportunity for it or the public to comment on the EPA’s future clean up decisions.

“Future decisions on clean up,” Nelson said, “are important to the success of the project.”

As part of the plan, a third-party testing company will take samples from the lake and up to three miles downstream into Wayne to identify “hot spots” of potential mercury contamination.

Neson said DuPont plans to meet with local and state officials to see about having its current work permit application approved, Nelson said.

Local and federal officials want to meet with the DEP to find more about the pollution that migrated from behind the Pompton Lake Dam and into Wayne.

The company will coordinate with the EPA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to “complete additional investigations.”

DuPont would like to start cleaning up the site in 2014, Nelson said.

“Our decision to pursue an appeal does not lesson our commitment to the community nor our desire to begin work on the remedy in the lake as quickly as possible,” Nelson said.

For more information about DuPont’s clean up plan for the site, click here.

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