TOWN , from Page 1 75 sites in the town of Hammonton listed on njbrownfieldsproperties . com .
Dan Bachalis , the chair of the Hammonton Environmental Commission , recently addressed these sites during a presentation about the town ’ s Natural Resource Inventory ( NRI ) at the November 17 meeting of the Hammonton Planning Board .
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Bachalis told The Gazette that , to him , there is “ only a fine distinction ” between brownfields and contaminated sites .
“ Brownfields are generally sites that were used for industrial or semi-industrial purposes in the past , and have been sold off but still have underlying issues with contamination that need to be addressed in order to be properly redeveloped . Contaminated sites are
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those that are more active , and either may be in the process of remediation or may not while negotiations go on about who ’ s responsible and how much it ’ s going to cost ,” Bachalis said .
Bachalis said that such sites can affect development or redevelopment of town properties .
“ In a town that is still working hard to stay on the crest of its pasts 20 years of success of redeveloping the town , that ’ s really , really critical . Folks who are buying properties in town need to know whether the property is in one of those properties , and they also would be well-served in knowing if it ’ s near where they ’ re going to be buying so they can take steps with the town to get it fixed or avoid it . We don ’ t want people to be avoiding buying property in town , but that ’ s a possibility if we have too many of these sites . Plus , they ’ re just an eyesore . We have enough vacant properties around town , so let ’ s get them fixed up ,” Bachalis said .
Bachalis said that the impact to the town caused by brownfields and contamination vary from site to site , and used 317 Egg Harbor Rd ., which once housed the glass factory of W . Skinner and Son Inc ., as an example .
“ The Skinner property had a lot of contamination ; that would cause a real problem if you had
Wednesday , January 19 , 2022 • The Hammonton Gazette • Page 3
DEP : 33 active contaminated sites in Hammonton
people doing things like really getting into the dirt . It would need to be cleared with some clean soil placed on top to make sure people aren ’ t going to be exposed to it if we use it as a future park in town . Certainly , it would be problematic if you were putting a house in there , and you had a basement ; it could seep contaminants into the basement block — which has happened in other towns ,” Bachalis said .
Bachalis also voiced environmental concerns , noting that there could be a “ big , big impact , given the right kind of contamination .”
“ We had that big , awful leak from South Jersey Gas — the big plume they had to take care of over at the water tower . That was a major problem because the plume headed under residential properties , and there ’ s still evidence of a plume that may or may not have stopped its progress towards the lake . We ’ re still investigating the impact of that ,” Bachalis said , referring to the site that once housed a coal gasification plant on Lincoln Street . Bachalis said that chief among environmental concerns are potential impacts on the Kirkwood – Cohansey Aquifer System .
“ If anything leaked deep enough , long enough , we ’ d have major hell to pay in terms of our drinking water ... Getting something really bad in our water would be simply horrible ; the impact on our operations and the town ’ s finances would be great — to say nothing of the fact that we ’ ve now polluted one of the best aquifers in the country , which is going to affect all of our neighbors . Given what we ’ ve seen in other parts of the state , we don ’ t want it to linger any longer than necessary to avoid larger impacts than might otherwise be necessary ,” Bachalis said .
Councilman Steven Furgione — the chair of the Water and Sewer Committee — said that Hammonton ’ s public drinking water is not in peril , but that may not be the case for well water .
“ The drinking wells that the town has — Wells 1 , 3 , 4 , 5 and 7 — are deep , very deep . Our average depth is a little over 300 feet . All of the contaminations are shallow , somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 or 60 feet deep . Our drinking wells are protected from that . If we catch an area where there is contamination , in the past we did it with South Jersey Gas , we try to make sure that any residents who have wells get them tested ; private wells are a lot shallower ,” Furgione said .
Furgione said that there are three active contamination sites that are being worked on by the
See FurGIONE , Page 12
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