EPA Making Progress on NJ Mystery Chemical Barrels That Sparked Potential Evac Warning

Mystery barrels leaking in a New Jersey community could take months to contain and remove as environmental crews continue sorting through the hundreds of drums at an abandoned site.

A team from the Environmental Protection Agency has been on hand since last month, making their way through more than 400 rusting drums that have, for decades, contained chemicals used to make adhesives and asphalt.

In recent years, the hundreds of drums and more than 1,000 smaller containers containing potentially hazardous materials have deteriorated, leading to a potentially dangerous outcome for neighbors. Last month, schools and homeowners in Monmouth County were told to be ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice.

Many of the drums at the former Farmingdale industrial plant, which borders Howell, were found to be leaking, rusting and bulging. The plant has long been shut down, but the barrels stuck around.

A spokesperson for the EPA said “significant progress” has been made in securing the drums, but none of the chemicals have been removed from the site. The disposal process will take some time as teams continue identifying what is inside the barrels and determine the best course of removal.

One nearby resident told NBC New York that she remembers decades ago when her children were coming home from school around lunchtime, and they saw the lids exploding, up in the air.

That kind of thing is still entirely possible at the site, because no one knows for sure what chemicals are still present.

Earlier in 2023, the new owner was burning some barrels in an old incinerator on the property, when the fumes and particulate pollution drifted into nearby neighborhoods, alarming first responders who rushed to put the fire out.

When Eric Daly, the on-scene coordinator for the EPA, was asked about those exploding lids 40 years ago, he said “You’re basically proving the reason we’re taking our time with this.”

With some 4,000 students going to school within the one-mile hot zone that reaches into Howell, residents are urged to have a go-pack for an evacuation that could be called at any time if the chemicals catch on fire.

“Everybody should have an evacuation plan or get-out-of-here plan just in case,” said Howell-Farmingdale OEM Director Victor Cook.

That being said, the EPA does feel it has the situation under as much control as it can without knowing what’s on the site. The agency hopes everything can be hauled away by the end of summer or shortly thereafter. Then it will have to deal with whatever pollution it finds in the soil and possibly in the groundwater.