The Respondent operates a manufacturing facility in Kearny, NJ. TCE, a hazardous substance, was found in the air of a building at the facility at a concentration that exceeds EPA's health-based screening criteria. Such a concentration may adversely affect health of certain workers employed in the facility. At EPA's request, the Respondent entered into a Settlement Agreement under which it will install a vapor mitigation system to alleviate the elevated concentration of TCE and any other VOCs found to exceed the screening criteria.
On April 20, 2021, EPA Region 2 entered into an Amendment to the Administrative Settlement Agreement and Order on Consent under CERCLA. Pursuant to the original Settlement Agreement, the Respondent has been performing a removal action to address indoor air contamination and has, among other things, installed sub-slab depressurization systems (SDSs) and performed years of indoor air sampling and monitoring. Although the Respondent has achieved significant improvements in contaminant levels, it has not been able to achieve indoor air concentrations below levels set by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) for all contaminants, as required by the original Settlement Agreement. The Amendment allows the Respondent to meet either NJDEP levels or the federal site-specific risk management levels (RMLs), which EPA determined are appropriate for the current commercial use of the facility. Because the sampling data indicate that th