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Pompton Lake – fish unsafe to eat due to toxic mercury from Dupont plant

US Fish and Wildlife Service Review Could Expand Dupont Cleanup

Today we disclose hot internal DEP documents, including DEP’s review comments on Dupont’s ecological assessment of mercury pollution in Pompton Lakes.

fish consumption advisory – Loss of access to the fishery is a natural resource injury that Dupont must compensate the public for.

We disclose that DEP took the highly unusual step and calculated a cleanup standard to protect fish and wildlife from mercury bioaccumulation known as a “Bioaccumulation Based Sediment Quality Value for Pompton Lake (“BSQV)“.

DEP calculated a 1 mg/kg (ppm) sediment cleanup standard.

DEP likely developed its own standard to pushback against flaws in the Dupont science. However, the DEP standard was not incorporated in the subsequent Dupont cleanup plan, which raises questions about why.

But we do know that DEP didn’t want us to have this hot document  – DEP denied our OPRA request for it on the sham basis that it is “deliberative”. The DEP documents can not be deliberative because DEP approved the Dupont remedial investigation plan in 2008 and the only pending decision for which deliberation is underway is by US EPA, not NJ DEP.

DEP also found that Dupont science was “misleading” regarding mercury fish tissue concentrations and raised a red flag regarding likely downriver mercury sediment impacts.

This information is now key, because Dupont is seeking to minimize their cleanup obligations and US Fish and Wildlife Service is currently reviewing the Dupont plan.

The Dupont cleanup plan does not consider upland or downriver impacts, and is limited to dredging sediments from a small 26 acre hot spot area of the lake known as the Acid Brook Delta.

EPA must approve or reject the plan, based on US FWS and public comments.

We look forward to the review comments by the ecological professionals at the US Fish and Wildlife Service (US FWS) NJ Field Office – see this for their environmental contaminants program.

US FWS does critically important work – especially in NJ’s toxic landscapes – and something you don’t hear much about from NJ bird conservation groups or press reports.

Read all about it in news from our friends at PEER

DuPont Pompton Lake Pollution May Be Headed Downstream

DEP Scientists’ Questions Could Prompt Feds to Expand DuPont Cleanup Scope

Trenton – New Jersey state scientists have pointed to evidence that mercury from a toxic waste site at Pompton Lakes is migrating down the Ramapo and Wanaque Rivers through contaminated sediment, fish and wildlife, according to agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). These documents surface just as federal agencies are reviewing the DuPont dredging plans to determine their ecological adequacy.

Pollution from the old E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Company ammunition plant has proven to be more than a 20-year long nightmare for the 450 homes exposed to deadly vapors and other effects. Now it appears that this pollution nightmare may be spreading.

State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) scientists found much higher levels of mercury in Pompton Lake fish than found elsewhere, raising red flags about bio-availability of the mercury and downriver sediment pollution. They said the ecological assessment in the DuPont plan to dredge a 26-acre section of Acid Brook Delta, a small part of the 260-acre polluted Pompton Lake, was “misleading” particularly in characterizing data on mercury in fish tissue.  Moreover, DEP calculated a sediment cleanup standard needed to protect fish and wildlife but DuPont’s plan did not incorporate that standard.

The adjoining Ramapo and Wanaque watersheds are affected by contaminated sediment flow as are their fish and wildlife, which bio-accumulate mercury through the food chain. The current DuPont dredging plan only addresses a small portion (10%) of the Lake and does not consider downriver sediment impacts.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service are now considering and must both sign off on this plan. PEER is urging Fish & Wildlife scientists to revisit the DEP standard during their review of the DuPont plan.

“These federal oversight agencies must look at these DEP findings and should conduct a de novo review of the scientific basis for the DuPont cleanup plan,” stated New Jersey PEER Director Bill Wolfe, noting that DEP had denied him access to these internal scientific documents under the state Open Public Records Act, claiming they were “deliberative” but had previously released these same documents to a different requester. “Right now we are a critical juncture in the future of Pompton Lakes.”

The DuPont plan is supposed to be based upon a site-specific ecological standard designed to protect fish and wildlife from the bio-accumulative effects of mercury in sediments. Federal review could expand the scope of the proposed cleanup and could also find additional injuries to natural resources for which DuPont must compensate the public.

For more than a century, DuPont’s operations poured heavy metals and other toxins into Pompton Lake. The plume of pollution has spread to groundwater underlying homes and businesses, causing vapor intrusion problems.

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Read the DEP comments on the DuPont cleanup

See the memo for the DEP scientists deriving cleanup standard

Look at DEP calculated ecological cleanup levels

View the DuPont cleanup plan

Examine the background on Pompton Lakes