Ongoing Remediation
Roche has been located in Nutley and Clifton for more than seven decades. During this time, our knowledge and understanding of the environment and manufacturing technologies have changed dramatically. While industrial solvents, fuel oils and other commonly-used compounds from past manufacturing operations may have entered the soil and groundwater, for many years now we have regularly tested the soil and groundwater. Over the past 20 years, we have made numerous improvements to site operations to eliminate or reduce the possibility that industrial solvents, fuel oils and other compounds will infiltrate into the ground. And, we continue to monitor and test, and actively coordinate with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with respect to the removal of compounds that may exceed today's standards.
As such, Roche entered into a voluntary agreement with the NJDEP in October 1992 to investigate and remediate, where warranted, our property, which is situated on 127 acres of land within the City of Clifton, Passaic County and the Town of Nutley, Essex County. Under the agreement, a comprehensive listing of over 100 areas of concern has been identified and is the focus of our remedial activities. These activities are at various stages of completion.
Remediation work initially was undertaken under the voluntary agreement in 1999 and continues to date. This has involved the removal of soil from the site contaminated with organic compounds including the excavation and off site treatment of volatile organic contaminated soil via incineration and then beneficial reuse of the cleaned soil, and the excavation and off site disposal of semi-volatile organic contaminated soil and PCB contaminated soil.
Remediation activities currently underway include a groundwater remediation system to remove and treat volatile organic-contaminated groundwater, which then beneficially reuses the clean water in our cooling towers, and a soil vapor extraction system to remove volatile organics from the subsurface soil. We anticipate undertaking a number of projects in 2009 including the implementation of an enhanced bioremediation remedy to treat groundwater contaminated with chlorinated volatile organic compounds in situ; use of innovative Soil Vapor Extraction will continue; installation of a monitoring well network in Nichols Park to investigate the extent of offsite migration of chlorinated volatile organic compounds and the effectiveness of our enhanced bioremediation remedy; installation of deep monitoring well network on the east side of our plant to conduct a remedial investigation of groundwater, and the excavation and removal of additional contaminated soils and concrete, which will be disposed of at approved, licensed facilities.