Tenafly Contimanited Site near West Railroad Avenue (how much, townhouses)

[kidstar]

We recently saw newly built townhouses on Grove Street (near West Railroad Avenue) in Tenafly called The Crossings. We really liked the townhouses but after doing some research, found out that the site on which these are built is on NJDEP's list active contamination sites. We backed off and did not put an offer. Perhaps we are being too cautious but would like to hear from any one living in these townhouses or in Tenafly about their concerns or any other information they would have.

[Phish Head]

I agree. Why take a chance? With over 95% of the homes in NJ are NOT located on a superfund site, I would look elsewhere. These sites are cleaned up by the government, which will always look to the lowest bidder, the cheapest way out of the problem. So many NPL sites are removed from the EPA list, but are NOT clean.

There's an area in North Brunswick that was supposedly clean, and a few years ago they found heavy contamination under peoples house in a development. The homes went from $700k to nearly worthless. The people living there had all sorts of medical problems.

[kidstar]

"Phish Head", I agree with you that eventhough the NJDEP may remove the site from it's active contaminated list of sites in the future, the site could still remain contaminated. What surprises me the most is that these townhouses consist of 44 units and from what I have been told, most of these units have been sold and have people living in them. I guess either people do not know about the contamination or don't care.

[Phish Head]

Keep in mind that "clean" means meeting a certain standard. It doesn't mean all the contamination is gone and its virgin soil. The EPA has much more lenient standards than NJ's standards. The government standard for benzene is 4 parts per million. If I gave you a glass of water with 4ppm of benzene in it, would you drink it? The govt says its clean.

The people living there will probably be fine, but I wouldn't chance it.

[joe moving]

How much is it?

[sholden]

Originally Posted by Phish Head

Keep in mind that "clean" means meeting a certain standard. It doesn't mean all the contamination is gone and its virgin soil. The EPA has much more lenient standards than NJ's standards. The government standard for benzene is 4 parts per million. If I gave you a glass of water with 4ppm of benzene in it, would you drink it? The govt says its clean.

The people living there will probably be fine, but I wouldn't chance it.

The government does not say that's clean, because they aren't completely retarded (all evidence to the contrary)

5 parts per billion is the maximum level the EPA allows in drinking water.

Soda with benzoate and ascorbic acid in the ingredients list are going to be giving you that much benzene (and you better not have liked orange soda before 2006...)

[86Sebring]

Is there a website that lists contaminated areas?
Aaaahemm I used to dring a 2 liter bottle of orange soda per day

[kidstar]

86Sebring, you can visit the following website to get a list of all currently active contaminated sites listed on NJ DEP's list:
NJDEP-Dataminer-Open Public Records Act (index page)

[kidstar]

"Phish Head"/"Sholden", according to NJDEP's records, the checmical that exists in the ground watner (not drinking water) is "Trichloroethylene." I researched this chemical and it seems to be cancer causing.