Summer 2004 Edition

A Brief History of Fair Lawn And The Impact It Has Had On The Area’s Ground Water   By Alex Adler Fair Lawn has changed tremendously since Daniel Danielson first leased the Slooterdam Patent in 1708 from the East Jersey Proprietors. For starters, the Algonquin language is no longer spoken in the region, nor are there any Lenni-Lenape people living amongst us. But maybe the greatest change has been the transformation from fertile farmland with sprawling pastures of corn, squash and beans to an established municipality with industrial development complexes coexisting alongside a thriving residential community. Fair Lawn’s fate was essentially sealed in 1791, when legendary statesman Alexander Hamilton and his Society for Establishing Useful Manufacturers developed Paterson into the first planned industrial city to encourage American economic independence, and to support the nation’s first capital, New York, and so began the downward spiral of industrial growth that eventually led to the disruption of the areas natural balance, much to the dismay of the indigenous peoples who had been flourishing in this area for at least the past 10,000 years. As the burgeoning city of Paterson grew, so did the demand for agricultural goods, which the surrounding environs to the northeast -- later to become known as Fair Lawn -- was helping to supply. This growth enabled the small farming community to blossom, so by the beginning of the American Civil War the area was sustaining 80 homes, and referred to as Small Lots. But Small Lots was destined for greater growth still; and by 1923 the residents of Small Lots were ready to secede from Saddle River Township when there was a dispute over taxes and the education system--the more things change, the more they stay the same. Nevertheless, in 1924, the residents petitioned the state with a referendum for self-governance. The people voted, and just like that the borough of Fair Lawn was incorporated; ready to deliver the liberty and prosperity that our state motto promotes. But the town that had received the All-American Cities award in 1953 was also destined to unveil the type of collateral damage that accompanies a developed manufacturing base. Particularly, contaminated ground water in the potable well systems that drain the New Brunswick aquifer some 400 feet below ground. It all surfaced in 1978 when state officials conducted a statewide survey of the groundwater, which revealed contamination in an industrial supply well within the Fair Lawn Industrial Park. This prompted investigators to further sample groundwater within the area. In 1981, it had been revealed that nine of Fair Lawn’s municipal wells were contaminated. The well water in northwest section of the borough in the residential Pollitt Drive Wellfield (wells #23 and #24), which were sealed up and abandoned afterwards, and industrial Westmoreland Wellfield (wells #10, #11, #14) had extremely high levels of putative cancer-causing agents that are referred to as volatile organic compounds, or VOC’s.  It should be noted that the EPA has since reported that cumulative levels of the various VOC’s did not increase the likelihood of disease in residents who may have been exposed to contaminants during the twenty some plus years prior to their discovery. The compounds identified consisted of chlorinated hydrocarbons that are thought to be from industrial solvents that are used in dissolving resins and oils, among other industrial uses. The levels found at these sites were the highest ever recorded in the state. It is even tempting to speculate that the findings of these nascent studies, in addition to more toxic sites like the Love Canal in upstate NY, helped set the tone for a new era of environmental consciousness in America; for in 1980 the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) was passed; and the idea of the Superfund was born.  Fair Lawn was officially registered on the federal National Priority List (NPL) of the Superfund on September 8th 1983. Specifically, the Superfund is a bill that permits the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) to establish “prohibitions and requirements concerning closed and abandoned hazardous waste sites; provide liability of persons responsible for releases of hazardous waste at these sites; and establish a trust fund to provide for cleanup when no responsible party could be identified. In addition, the law authorizes two kinds of response actions: Short-term removals, where actions may be taken to address releases or threatened releases requiring prompt response; and long-term remedial response actions, that permanently and significantly reduce the dangers associated with releases or threats of releases of hazardous substances that are serious, but not immediately life threatening.” (See: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/action/law/cercla.htm). Thanks to the EPA’s superfund, strategies have been developed to deal with the contaminated groundwater. In particular, specialized cutoff trenches and pumping wells have been employed at the focal points of contamination. Contaminated groundwater is channeled into a vacuum pump gas separator called an air stripper, which removes specific contaminants. The borough has also been capitalizing on the air stripper technology for Fair Lawn’s drinking water since 1986. Today, Memorial Park Wellfield (wells #15, 16,17, and #19), Willow Street Well (well #8), George Street Well (well #9) and Cadmus Wellfield (wells #2, #5, and #7) are all being filtered through air strippers. Many of these wells were shown to have been contaminated in the 1981 study, but none were serious enough to warrant closure; and by 1995 the EPA, in conjunction with the Fair Lawn Health and Water Departments, were able to demonstrate VOC levels within the established guidelines as set forth in the New Jersey Safe Drinking Act. For other articles regarding water quality, see the Special Report on Water Quality in the Fall 2003 edition of Fair Lawn News.