French’s Landfill is located in the Herbertsville section of Brick Township between the Garden State Parkway (west) and Sally Ike Road (east). The site is approximately forty-two (42) acres in size and is now heavily wooded. Because the site is on the Superfund List, unauthorized persons are prohibited from entering French’s Landfill.
For over 30 years, the site was used for the disposal of residential and commercial garbage, construction debris, vegetative wastes, and sewage / septic wastes. The landfill was closed in 1979. Significant surface remediation including the removal of drums was performed in 1982 and the site was placed on the Superfund National Priorities List in 1983. The site has been the subject of extensive testing and monitoring for the last twenty years. In 1999, groundwater contamination was detected in numerous off-site locations resulting in the imposition of a ban on the use of groundwater and the sealing of private wells within 1 mile of the landfill. The contaminant plume is approximately 367 acres.
For More Information About French’s Landfill, visit the following links…or contact Township Public Information Officer Bryan J. Dickerson by phone at 732-262-1010 or by e-mail bdicker@twp.brick.nj.us
A Brief History of the French’s Landfill
Late 1940s to 10 Jan 1968 -- landfill operated by John McCormick
March 1969 to 3 Dec 1973 -- landfill operated by Robert French
3 Dec 1973 – Township of Brick purchased landfill from Robert French with the ultimate goal of closing it down.
Dec 1973 to April 1979 --- landfill operated by Township of Brick
April 1979 --- Last wastes accepted at French’s Landfill
Dec 1982 --- Landfill proposed for inclusion on Federal National Priorities List (NPL) also known as “Superfund.”
Sept 1983 – Landfill officially placed on NPL / Superfund but was never eligible for Federal clean-up funds.
Dec 1986 to Jan 1992 -- Under the direction of NJDEP, Ebasco Services performed a series of remediation studies on the landfill. One of these studies was a magnetic survey to locate buried drums. No buried drums were located.
Nov 1992 – DEP announced $10 million closure plan for the landfill which includes an impermeable cap and methane gas ventingsystem.
Jan 1993 -- Township engineers and officials questioned DEP’s rationale for the requirement of an impermeable cap and methane gas venting system.
Oct 1994 --- After many months of discussions between NJDEP, other State officials and Township officials, NJDEP Commissioner Robert Shinn informed the Township that an impermeable cap and methane gas venting system will not be needed for the landfill. Remediation plan calls for monitored naturalattenuation.
Sept 1999 --- After several rounds of groundwater testing discovered groundwater contamination had spread offsite, Township imposes a ban on the use of private irrigation wells within one mile of the landfill. This ban is later reduced to ½ mile after subsequent testing determines the extent of offsite contamination.
April 2000 --- Dredge materials from Greenbriar Lake deposited at landfill for erosion control. Subsequently similar materials were deposited there from Lake Riviera and several local lagoons.
Summer 2000 --- Township converted private irrigation well owners over to municipal water supply to replace their now-closed wells.
Summer 2001 --- Township sealed approximately 270 contaminated wells located within the well ban area.
Late May 2003 -- Dredge materials from Belmar (Shark River) deposited at Landfill for erosion control. Resident pposition halted this operation in mid-June 2003.
18 Aug 2003 -- Independent tests performed by the PMK Group Consulting and Environmental Engineers confirmed that the Belmar dredge materials deposited at the landfill in May met NJ DEP Residential Clean-up Standards.
31 January 2005 -- Under contract from the Township, ENVIRON International completes an updated Human Health Risk Assessment for the landfill. The study confirmed previous studies which indicated that the potential for exposure to contaminated groundwater was remote. A copy of this study is posted in the HHRA section of this website.
French's Landfill - An Overview
Brick Township is a community that has earned state-wide recognition for a variety of positive factors including for having a strong local business economy, its excellent schools and award-winning sports teams, and being ranked 2nd Safest City in America by the independent research firm Morgan Quitno. Brick Township is a leader in open space preservation and government efficiency.
Brick Township is also known for having its own Superfund hazardous waste site – the French’s Landfill, also known as the Brick Township Landfill and McCormick’s Dump. It is a dubious distinction that the community would be better off without but one which the Municipal Government is proactively striving to address.
There is a common misconception amongst the public about Superfund; many people believe that being on the Superfund list automatically provides federal dollars to pay for site clean-up. That is simply not true. Superfund only provides federal clean-up dollars under limited criteria. This means that, as a November 23rd, 2004 article in the Asbury Park Press pointed out, the federal government has paid for only 30% of the Superfund sites that have been cleaned up. French’s Landfill is NOT one of those Superfund sites that have been paid for by the federal government.
Brick Township is a prime example of how Superfund has failed. At the end of December 1973, the Township government purchased the French’s Landfill in large part to end dumping operations there. At the time, Township officials thought they were taking an important action to stop an odor and health problem that had plagued nearby residents for years. Instead they purchased liability for all contamination that had occurred on the site in the preceding thirty years.
After operating the landfill for several years, the Township was able to have the landfill closed permanently. Then in 1982, the landfill was placed on the Superfund list. At the time, Township officials thought that being on Superfund would result in federal funds to clean up the site. They were wrong. The Township has never received any federal funding to clean up the landfill. But the Township’s landfill is on the Superfund list nevertheless.
Under the supervision of the US Environmental Protection Agency and the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, the Township government has taken an aggressive, pro-active approach to remediating the landfill. The Township capped the landfill with a permeable cap and removed all 180 or so drums from the surface. When the Township learned that the landfill was contaminating nearby private wells in the fall of 1999, the Township enacted an immediate well ban to protect the public’s health without being told to do so by either the EPA or DEP. The Township sealed about 248 private wells in the vicinity. Township engineers have conducted extensive groundwater testing in the area. They continue to monitor the contaminant plume and are evaluating additional strategies for its remediation.
Of course, all of this remediation work comes with a price that has been borne solely by the taxpayers of our community. Since 1981, the Township has spent over $3.8 million (unadjusted for inflation) to remediate the landfill. Over the last six years, the Township has spent $1.8 million on the landfill. Brick Township taxpayers have paid for all of the work done on the landfill. Not one federal dollar has been spent for site clean-up.
French’s Landfill ought not to be on the Superfund list. While it is responsible for contaminating nearby groundwater, contamination levels are far, far less than most other sites listed on Superfund. Just visit the EPA’s Superfund website www.epa.gov/superfund and you will find many, many more Superfund sites that have far greater contamination and pose a far greater risk to the public.
We have aggressively dealt with the landfill and will continue to do so. Of course, dealing with the landfill aggressively doesn’t mean we are going to spend tax dollars foolishly. We are going to remediate the landfill in ways that both protect the public’s health and protect the public’s tax dollars.
Plume Overview
Dimensions: Approximately 367 acres in area horizontally. Kidney-shaped with about 5,200 feet between its furthest most points. 25 feet to 95 feet below surface at its widest vertical extent.
General Boundaries: North: south side of Millbrook Road East: east end of State streets (New York Ave., etc.) Southeast: Brick Memorial High School / Greenbriar II property line South: intersection of Sally Ike and Lanes Mill Roads West: Garden State Parkway
Contaminants: Twenty-four contaminants in excess of NJDEP Groundwater Quality Standards have been detected in the contaminant plume:
Other Items: ammonia, chloride, total dissolved solids,
Metals: (many of these are naturally occurring in the area and therefore may not have originated at the landfill) iron, manganese, chromium (not hexavalent, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, nickel
Remediation Strategy
The landfill was capped with a permeable cap consisting of three feet of soil that was obtained from the borrow area on the north side of the site. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the NJDEP contracted with Ebasco Services to conduct several studies of the landfill and recommend remediation strategies. The strategies that were considered included the installation of an impermeable cap with a methane gas venting system, monitored natural attenuation, groundwater pump and treat, and aquifer restoration with air stripping. Ultimately in the fall of 1994, natural attenuation with compliance monitoring was selected by NJDEP as the remediation strategy for French’s Landfill. As a result of the Township’s 1999-2000 groundwater investigation, the contamination plume was delineated and a ban on the use of groundwater enacted by the Township in September 1999 and by the NJDEP in the summer of 2002.
Natural attenuation uses natural processes in the soil and groundwater to remediate contaminants. Depending upon the particular contaminant, natural attenuation may occur as a result of several processes: 1) dilution into safer concentration; 2) evaporation and/or volatilization; 3) bioremediation. During bioremediation, microbes in the soil and groundwater actually eat the contaminants, converting them into water and harmless gases. Over time, these natural processes will destroy and dilute the contaminants. Unfortunately, these processes take many, many years to occur, thus necessitating the NJDEP groundwater use ban’s duration of 55 years.
The USEPA and NJDEP in conjunction with the Township of Brick are currently developing a Record of Decision for the property which will evaluate all remedial alternatives and help to implement the most effective and efficient means of remediation. In all likelihood this will be Natural Attenuation/Compliance Monitoring.
2005 Human Health Risk Assessment
Under contract from the Township of Brick, ENVIRON International performed a Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA) for persons living in the vicinity of French’s Landfill. The study evaluated the possibility of persons being exposed to contaminated groundwater and found that there was “no potential for significant exposure”. This study confirmed the results of previous studies performed on the site, the most recent of which was done in April 2000 by the U.S. Public Health Service.
To learn more about the HHRA, visit the following links…
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