Residents and businesses near a local gas station recently received letters alerting them to “an environmental investigation” taking place at the property.
Municipal officials were unaware of this investigation until residents received the letter and began asking questions.
According to the letter, several “petroleum-based constituents…have been identified in groundwater above the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s (NJDEP’s) Groundwater Quality Standards” near the station.
The July 31 letter was sent to residents and businesses within 200 feet of the Shell station at 300 Route 3 East.
The missive points out that groundwater contamination could extend about 150 feet north of the property, while soil contamination could spread approximately 150 feet northeast of the gas station.
The letter was sent out by Motiva Enterprises LLC., a subsidiary of the Shell Oil Company. Houston-based Motiva is a joint venture between Shell and Saudi Refining Inc. Motiva owns and operates Shell stations throughout the northeast, southeast, and Gulf Coast states.
Among the contaminants recently discovered in elevated levels in groundwater at the gas station are Lead, Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, Xylene, Tertiary Butyl Alcohol, and other petroleum-related chemicals. Elevated levels of Benzene and Xylene have been found in soil at the station.
There has been periodic environmental testing at the site for more than 20 years.
Motiva spokesman Jon Holt said last week that this is part of ongoing testing at the station that was required by the state and is not new.
“These constituents were first discovered and reported to the NJDEP in 1988,” said Holt. “When they replaced and upgraded storage tanks in the ’80s, they discovered that some products had leaked into the soil and groundwater. Since then, NJDEP standards have been upgraded and controls have been put in place to make sure this doesn’t happen again in the future. And if it does, it’s detected quickly and taken care of quickly. What we’re doing now is monitoring the site.”
Following the initial discovery of contamination, the NJDEP required Shell to remediate the Route 3 East property. In addition, in 2006 Motiva voluntarily agreed to pay $2.2 million to compensate the state for groundwater contamination at several hundred New Jersey gas stations, including the Secaucus station.
The company said the process was part of routine testing.
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Holt said the company has complied with cleanup requirements mandated by the NJDEP.
Letters sent to comply with new law
Under a new NJDEP law that went into effect last week, Shell had until Sept. 2 to notify nearby residents of the ongoing testing at the station and the results of recent tests.
According to the law, property owners of contaminated sites undergoing environmental cleanups must notify the community of any recent test results and land remediation taking place. Property owners can either post a large sign on the affected property, or they can send letters in the mail. Letters are only required to be sent to the municipality and residents, tenants, and companies within 200 feet of the property.
In the past, such information was publicly available, but residents had to request it.
Local leaders unaware
According to the notification law, companies are required to send copies of notification letters to the municipal health office, the mayor’s office, and the town clerk.
Several officials in Secaucus, however, were unaware of the testing at Shell and say they did not receive a copy of Motiva’s letter.
Town Clerk Michael Marra is the only Secaucus official who said last week that he did get a copy of the letter.
No member of the Town Council had seen the letter until Councilman John Bueckner circulated it to members of the governing body two weeks ago at the Aug. 25 council meeting.
“A resident in the area got this letter and showed it to me,” Bueckner said. “I didn’t know anything about any environmental testing and I just brought it to the meeting to see if any other members of the council were aware of it.”
Vincent Rivelli, Secaucus’ health officer, was out of town last week. His assistant did a search of correspondence the office received in August. She said there was no letter from Motiva in their files.
The company’s letter was sent out days after former Mayor Dennis Elwell was arrested and resigned from office. Deputy Mayor John Reilly, who took over for Elwell in a temporary capacity on July 28, said he was not familiar with the letter until Bueckner brought it to the council’s attention two weeks ago.
Holt said, “We complied with the notification requirements and the municipality was sent copies of the letter.”
According to the NJDEP’s new notification law, companies are required to share any reports submitted to the state with municipal leaders – but only at the municipality’s request.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.