It’s no accident this environmental cleanup project’s a leader in worker safety
Team shares safety best practices
By JoAnne Castagna, Ed.D.
It’s the 1940s in Maywood , New Jersey. A new residential community has sprouted up and the homeowners want to beautify their front lawns, so they go to a nearby property to gather some fresh topsoil. Little did they know that they’re helping to plant the seeds for one of the largest and most high-profile environmental cleanup projects in the nation. The soil they gathered was from the grounds of Maywood Chemical Works, a company that disposed of radioactive waste onto their property, as well as on a nearby wetland that’s the headwaters for the Lodi Brook. This waterway carried contamination downstream and spread it onto its floodplains where these new residential communities were being built during the construction boom following World War II. Decades ago, these residents and the company were unaware of what they were starting, but today the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District, is resolving it. The agency, in cooperation with partners, is cleaning up the community to make it safe for residents, while at the same time keeping their own workers safe. They’ve been so successful that they achieved 1 million manhours without a lost time accident. This is a significant milestone for the Army Corps and not often achieved in the industry, and something especially important on environmental cleanup projects. The team reached this success by carrying out safety best practices that will be shared here. FUSRAP Maywood Superfund Site This project is being addressed by the Army Corps under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), that’s responsible for cleaning up radioactive waste generated during the early years of the nation's atomic energy program. The Army Corps’ New York District is the lead agency implementing the cleanup effort at the Maywood site and has four other active sites in the greater New York City area that it leads. Dan Kennedy, project manager, Environmental, Interagency & International Services Branch, New York District, U.S. Army Corps
New York District Commander, Mathew Luzzatto touring the FUSRAP Maywood Superfund Site in New Jersey in February 2023. Credit: DeShawn Bowser, Public Affairs, New York District.
of Engineers, said, “The FUSRAP has some of the most technically challenging remedial projects in the nation and doing it safely is the most important factor during any remedial action.” The Maywood FUSRAP Site is located in a highly developed area of northeastern New Jersey, just 12 miles west of New York City. The property where wastes were disposed of covers 153-acres across the Boroughs of Maywood and Lodi and the Township of Rochelle Park in Bergen County, New Jersey. In the early 20th century, Maywood Chemical Works sat on 63 acres of this land. For over 50 years, the company processed monazite sand to extract thorium and other rare earth minerals used in industrial products, including mantles for gas lanterns, as well as processed lithium ores for use of lithium in commercial products. The chemical and radioactive thorium waste that resulted from this production was stored, treated, or disposed of on the site into pits, piles, and man-made lagoons.
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csengineermag.com
June 2023
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