The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection fined the operators of an abandoned industrial site more than $1 million for violating environmental regulations, as emergency cleanup by the Environmental Protection Agency continued. Some 400 dilapidated chemical drums litter the defunct Compounders facility in Howell Township near the boundary with Farmingdale.
Town officials set up an evacuation plan, but the EPA has secured the site and is monitoring air and water for contamination. “It’s more secure now than it has been in prior decades,” said Victor Cook, Howell’s emergency management director. He called the evacuation map a precaution, not an order.
The DEP charges that Compounders neglected to remediate the site as required; operated the facility without proper permits; failed to minimize the possibility of fire, explosion and hazardous waste; and closed and sold the company to a new LLC called Marl 15 without proper notice to regulators. Some violations go back more than a decade.
