East Trenton neighborhood to be declared a Superfund site due to lead hazards

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it will place an entire neighborhood in East Trenton on its Superfund list, an encouraging sign for dozens of families there whose homes are contaminated with toxic lead.

“For decades, families in East Trenton have lived with contamination left behind by historic industrial operations,” “EPA” Regional Administrator Michael Martucci said in a release Monday. “By adding this site to the National Priorities List, ‘EPA’ is addressing public health risks and laying the groundwork for community revitalization and economic growth.”

High levels of lead were discovered throughout East Trenton almost a decade ago in public parks and in residents’ yards. The neighborhood was home to a string of pottery plants dating to the mid-19th century.

While the potteries were shuttered decades ago, lead-based glazings were scattered with the wind and settled in yards, gardens, and public spaces. They built up inside homes as well, experts say, and were inevitably ingested by residents. More than 200 residential properties tested in recent years — in addition to two parks and school grounds — show levels of lead considered highly hazardous by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Lead in the human bloodstream has been linked to a range of illnesses and neurologic disorders, as well as behavioral issues in children.

“We know the dangers of lead exposure are serious and long-lasting — especially for children, who are most vulnerable to its impacts on health, behavior, and learning,” Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora said in a prepared statement. “With federal support, we can accelerate cleanup efforts, pursue accountability from responsible parties, and bring meaningful revitalization to our neighborhoods.”

The Environmental Protection Agency announcement was welcome news for volunteers and researchers who’ve been working for years to document the lead contamination and educate residents about the dangers. East Trenton, they point out, is home to some of New Jersey’s poorest families, many who do not speak English as a primary language.

“This will hopefully help us get the word out,” said Shereyl Snider, an organizer with the nonprofit East Trenton Collaborative. “People in this neighborhood need help.”

Monday’s announcement came with few details about what a community cleanup might look like, when it would start, and how much it might cost. Other complex cases of historic contamination, in sites from Jersey City to the Raritan Bay to the Passaic River, remain works in progress after years of planning and remediation. There are already more than 1,300 sites on the National Priorities List, including scores in New Jersey.

“This could end up as a 30-year project,” said Sean Stratton, a Rutgers University researcher who’s collected samples from more than 100 homes in East Trenton over the past two years. “All but one of the houses we tested had hazardous levels. This is going to be a major remediation effort.”

Stratton said he was concerned that the Environmental Protection Agency’s initial plans for East Trenton mentioned only cleaning up yards and outdoor spaces and said nothing about the high levels of lead dust he has documented inside homes on floors, window sills, and other household spaces. His data shows that even newer houses built after lead paint was banned in 1978 have very high lead levels.

“That tells me that people have brought contamination inside with them,” Stratton said. “Any plan to remediate East Trenton has to deal with the interior issue.”

Bill Wolfe, a former state Department of Environmental Protection official who writes a notable blog on environmental policy, pointed out that the state documented high lead levels inside East Trenton homes decades ago, yet failed to act.

He said any remediation of the historic pottery sites should now address lead wherever it’s found.

“The plan should address the inside and the outside of homes. If not, it’s fatally flawed,” Wolfe said.

Carlos Vega, an Environmental Protection Agency spokesman, said he could not immediately answer questions about interior testing.

Vega said the Superfund process involves a series of steps that include a remedial investigation and feasibility study to fully understand the level of contamination at the site. “After a record of decision is signed, the ‘EPA’ will develop a remedial design, which is the detailed engineering design for the cleanup. After the remedial design is complete, the ‘EPA’ will understand the full cleanup timeline,” he said.

In the end, Vega said, the “EPA” could pursue damages from a “responsible party.”

Tracing responsibility for East Trenton’s lead crisis, however, will be a challenge. Trenton’s pottery industry, which began in the mid-19th century, was moribund by the 1930s and virtually extinct by the 1960s as manufacturing moved elsewhere.

“Trenton’s legacy as a center of pottery manufacturing brought both cultural and economic vitality to our city,” said Gusciora. “But it also left behind a dangerous legacy of lead contamination, particularly in the soil of our East Trenton neighborhoods.”