FAIR LAWN – The federal government will spend $19.5 million to expand a filtration system at a Superfund site in town that cleans up dangerous chemicals in borough well water before it reaches residents’ taps.
Borough officials and Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) held a news conference Friday to announce the funding plan that will pay to treat water that was contaminated decades ago, when chemicals from Kodak, Fisher Scientific and Sandvik Inc. leached into the town’s water supply from those companies’ facilities in the nearby Fair Lawn Industrial Park.
“Today we are here to announce a critical investment in our community, to hold polluters responsible, to rehabilitate toxic damage done to our land, our water, our air, and to begin the final chapter in a 40-year threat to the residents of Fair Lawn,” Gottheimer said.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency’s plan will expand three existing pump-and-treat systems at the Westmoreland Well Field to remove 1,4-dioxane, PFOA and POFS – potentially dangerous chemicals that have been found in many New Jersey drinking water systems.
