Pfizer awaits verdict on contaminated site clean-up plan
pharmafile | December 13, 2011 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Sales and Marketing |Â Â FDA, Pfizer, manufacturingÂ
The US Environmental Protection Agency is due to deliver a verdict on a $205 million proposal by Pfizer to clean up contaminated land it owns in Bridgewater, New Jersey in the coming days.
Whether or not the EPA backs the plans, which have been some seven years in the making – or an alternative strategy – it will spark a 30-day public consultation period.
Pfizer inherited the former American Cyanamid site when it acquired Wyeth in 2009, taking over responsibility for 435 acres of land that has been ravaged by decades of chemical production and release of contaminants into the environment.
American Cyanamid produced pharmaceuticals, dyes, and petroleum-based products site, which lies above New Jersey’s second largest aquifer with many private homes and private wells nearby. Plant operators routinely dumped hazardous wastes, sludge, and other by-products – including naphthalene and benzene, into lagoons and pits located on the property, according to the EPA.
Earlier this year, flooding in the area caused seepage of benzene from the site into the nearby Raritan River, leading to levels some 20,000 times the maximum acceptable according to US environmental standards.
Pfizer’s 10-year proposal centres on the creation of a capped landfill to store a large volume of toxic sludge, as well as upgrading groundwater collection and treatment systems. The landfill area would be topped by a solar panel farm for electricity generation, and the bulk of the site would eventually become a public park.
Local environmentalists are already challenging the proposals, arguing that a capped landfill is an imperfect solution to the problem as they can degrade over time and require continuous monitoring and maintenance.
Pfizer’s plan affects the bulk of the site but does not include two other trouble spots – known as Impoundments 1 and 2 – which were used to store waste benzene.
That four-acre portion is subject to a separate remediation plan due in early 2013, although Pfizer has already started work on a series of interim measures designed to protect groundwater there from contamination, including a protective slurry wall, trench and water treatment systems.
Phil Taylor
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