Credit: (musiking from Pixabay)More than a year after federal and state scientists found a new group of toxic chemicals tainting the soil and water in South Jersey, state regulators are taking a first step in getting the pollution cleaned up.
The state Department of Environmental Protection last week quietly set new limits for that industrial chemical in Garden State groundwater. Under the new rule, no more than 2 parts per trillion of the chemical are allowed in groundwater in the state.
The new rules are what’s known as “interim specific” standards — precursors to more permanent rules. Interim specific standards are often set at extremely low levels in situations where regulations are deemed urgently necessary.
Shawn LaTourette, the DEP commissioner, told NJ Spotlight News his agency set the interim standards now because they’re “necessary.”
“Because it is too often the case that industry is out ahead of where environmental regulation is,” LaTourette said.
Tools to protect public health
Tracy Carluccio, the deputy director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, has spent years raising awareness of water pollution in South Jersey. She welcomed the new regulations as important tools to protect public health in the area.
“I think it’s very important, because of the high toxicity of the compounds, that DEP is taking action now,” Carluccio said.
This problem came to light in summer 2020, with new research published in the journal Science by scientists from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the DEP. The research found the chemicals emanating from the Solvay plant in West Deptford, with the contamination focused in South Jersey, but found elsewhere in the state, as well.
Solvay, a Belgium-based chemical company, makes specialty plastics in West Deptford. The facility is the only known source of the compounds in New Jersey’s environment, according to the DEP.
‘We are fully committed to completing the investigation and remediation of any PFAS impacts attributable to our West Deptford facility.’
“Solvay takes matters involving the environment very seriously,” said Robert Miller, a Solvay spokesman, in a statement. “We are fully committed to completing the investigation and remediation of any PFAS impacts attributable to our West Deptford facility.”
Chloroperfluoropolyether carboxylates, or ClPFPECAs, are part of the larger family of toxic chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Collectively, the substances are linked to multiple health problems, including cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They’re often called “forever chemicals” because they do not break down easily.
New Jersey currently has groundwater and drinking water standards for three more common members of the PFAS family: perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA).
Permanent water standards
LaTourette said the DEP would now move to create permanent water standards for the chemicals. Such standards could take years to enact. PFNA, for example, got an interim groundwater standard of 10 parts per trillion in 2015, and a permanent standard of 13 parts per trillion in 2018.
“When the public finds out that there is an issue, whether it be their drinking water, whether it be their groundwater, there is fear. There is an expectation that their government is working to protect them,” LaTourette said. “So this is how we do that. We adopt interim standards, then we’ll move to adopt permanent standards, in order to make sure that we’re getting as far ahead of the issue as we can.”
‘When the public finds out that there is an issue, there is an expectation that their government is working to protect them. So this is how we do that. We adopt interim standards, then we’ll move to adopt permanent standards.’
Solvay has been at the heart of water issues in Gloucester County since 2013, when high levels of PFNA were found in drinking water in West Deptford, Paulsboro and other nearby towns. At the time, Solvay had been using PFNA as part of its manufacturing work.
A water crisis ensued, with bottled water distributed, drinking water supply wells abandoned and new private well filters installed.
Meanwhile, as Solvay used PFNA, it was also using ClPFPECAs. The chemical company is known to have used the new compounds in West Deptford since “well before” 2006, according to the technical support documents for the DEP’s new interim standard.
According to DEP documents, CIPFPECAs have been found in soils, surface water and groundwater — including in private wells — in the area near the Solvay plant. The DEP added that the chemicals were emitted by Solvay into the air, as well as through untreated wastewater emptied into the Delaware River between 1996 and 2017. Solvay told state regulators that it began treating its wastewater for the chemicals in 2017, according to the documents.
‘This pollution problem is a scandal’
“This pollution problem is really a scandal,” Carluccio said. “Because Solvay was using a compound that’s even more toxic, at lower doses, than the compounds they already knew they were supposed to phase out in the early 2000s.”
Since the water crisis bubbled up in 2013, Solvay has spent more than $30 million on testing for and removing the chemicals in Gloucester County. Miller said the company is in the process of investigating the ClPFPECA pollution.
The DEP has pressed Solvay to go further, and in late 2020 joined the state Attorney General’s Office in suing the chemical company to compel the cleanup of PFAS in South Jersey. That litigation remains ongoing.
With the new standards in place, Carluccio said the state now has stronger legal footing against Solvay.
Solvay stopped using any chemical in the PFAS family in 2021, according to Miller, who noted the substances were only used by the company in West Deptford and not other locations in the U.S. Miller added that concerned residents who want to contact Solvay should call 1-800-936-8159 or email westdeptfordinfo@solvay.com.
