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Former Raritan Arsenal, Comprehensive Environmental Evaluation

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - New York and New England Districts
LOCATION: Edison, NJ

OVERVIEW

• Human Health and Ecological Risk Assessment
• Impact and extent of contamination evaluated for a diverse group of land uses: a community college, public park, industrial and commercial properties, and a tidal wetland.
• CERCLA and NJDEP regulatory compliance
• Soil, surface water, and groundwater impact assessment at a FUDS site
• PRG development for Feasibility Study phase

DESCRIPTION

Avatar was tasked to prepare a human health risk assessment for USACE New York and New England Districts at the former Raritan Arsenal in Edison, NJ. The former Raritan Arsenal is a Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS) encompassing approximately 3,200 acres along the banks of the Raritan River. It was used by the U.S. Army from 1917 to 1963. Operations at the site included the receipt, storage, shipment, and/or decommissioning of ordnance, arms, and machinery. Some waste material, including ordnance and chemical agents, were reportedly buried on-site or were destroyed by surface burning or burning in chambers or pits. Accidental explosions in magazine buildings and outdoor storage areas reportedly scattered explosive materials over large areas, and drove ordnance fragments into the ground.

Initially, Avatar prepared a data gaps analysis and multi-pathway human health and ecological risk assessment work plans for the former Arsenal, as well as the preliminary screening-level ecological risk assessment. More recently, Avatar developed a comprehensive risk assessment for evaluating human health risks to a variety of potential receptors. The currently mixed use of the former Arsenal required the application of multiple exposure scenarios including commercial/industrial, residential, recreational, and trespassing, among others.

The HHRA results indicated that PAHs and arsenic are significant contributors to the site risk estimates. It is likely that the risks from PAHs and arsenic have included risks from concentrations that may have been partially related to naturally- occurring levels or non DOD-related sources such as truck traffic emissions, surface water runoff from roadways, etc. Because the site falls under the DERP-FUDS program, under which USACE can only consider risks that are attributable to DOD- related contamination, Avatar performed a more detailed evaluation to investigate the degree to which these issues impact risk estimates. Our evaluation indicated that the estimated risks were significantly reduced after subtraction of non DOD- related sources and background contamination at a number of areas. These reductions ranged from a few percent to well over 50% in some cases. This evaluation is anticipated to eliminate or reduce future remedial expenditures by over 50% on this site.

The final phase of the project included developing site-specific PRGs for use in the feasibility study.

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