Orange/West Orange site may be added to Superfund list

TRENTON – The EPA has proposed adding a site in Orange and West Orange to the Superfund list.

The Environmental Protection Agency said it proposed adding the Orange Valley Regional Ground Water site to the nation’s list of most hazardous sites.

EPA said that groundwater there is contaminated with tetrachloroethylene or PCE, trichloroethylene or TCE and cis-1,2-dichloroethylene.

Exposure to these industrial solvents can cause liver damage and lead to cancer, EPA said.

The Orange Park and Gist Place wells serve a combined population of more than 10,000 people, according to EPA, which said adding the site to the Superfund list will enable EPA to do the sampling that can lead to formulation of the best way to address the problem.

After discovering the contamination in the early 1980s, the Orange Water Department installed a treatment system on wells to remove the contaminants and provide the community with safe drinking water. Water from these wells is regularly monitored, EPA said.

EPA is also working to discover the source of the contamination.