The national EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is conducting its first five-year review of the cleanup at the former Lightman Drum Company Superfund site in Winslow Township.
On July 23, 2025, the site was deemed ready for anticipated re-use. Cooperage currently operates a business for buying and selling drums and barrels on the site.
The review will confirm that EPA’s cleanup plans to address contaminated soil and groundwater at the property remain protective of people’s health and the environment, according to a public notice of the review.
As part of the 2009 cleanup plan, EPA built an air sparging and soil vapor extraction system to turn contaminants to gas and pull them out of the groundwater. Initially, the 2009 plan also called for extraction and treatment of groundwater. After several years of periodic groundwater monitoring, EPA amended the plan in 2019 from extraction and treatment to a strategy that relies on natural processes, like bacteria, called Monitored Natural Attenuation to reduce contamination in the groundwater over time. EPA made this change after finding that contamination in the groundwater was naturally decreasing.
In the 2011 cleanup plan, EPA expanded the air sparging and soil vapor extraction system to treat contaminated soil. In 2020, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection established restrictions on using the area groundwater to protect community members until the groundwater cleanup goals are met.
A summary of these cleanup activities and evaluation of the protectiveness of the plan will be included in the upcoming five-year review report. The report is scheduled to be completed by summer 2026.
EPA inspects Superfund sites every five years to ensure that cleanups conducted remain fully protective of people’s health and the environment. These regular reviews, which are required by federal law when contaminants remain at a si9te, include inspecting the site and cleanup technologies; reviewing monitoring and operating data and maintenance records; and determining if any new regulatory requirements have been established since EPA’s original cleanup decision was finalized.
The site covers about 15 acres. The Lightman Drum Company operated an industrial waste hauling and drum reclamation business at the site from 1974 to 1979. The company stored chemical residues in underground storage tanks, drums, and trailers. The company also emptied drums into a pit in a wooded area on the property, according to background of the site.
Facility operations contaminated soil and groundwater with hazardous chemicals, including chemical powders, pesticides, waste oil, oil sludges, paints, pigment, thinner, ink, residues, ketones, alcohols, and mixed solvents, EPA officials said.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) asked EPA to evaluate the site in May of 1999. EPA placed the site on the National Priorities List (NPL) in October of that year and became the lead agency to clean up the site.
There are two plumes – or areas where contaminates are dispersed – of contaminated groundwater at the site. The eastern plume came from the former Waste Storage Tanks and the western plume came from the Unlined Waste Disposal Pit in the wooded area. United Cooperage currently operates a drum brokerage business to buy, clean and resell drums on a small portion of the site.
Initial response
The NJDEP oversaw the removal of the underground tanks in 1984, as well as soil sampling in 1987, and soil and groundwater sampling from 1989 to 1990. EPA required that contaminated soil associated with a previously removed underground storage tank be taken out in 2007.
Long-term response
EPA finalized a cleanup plan, memorialized in a document called a Record of Decision (ROD) in 2009. The site is divided into two operable units. Operable Unit 1 (OU1) covers the contaminated groundwater and Operable Unit 2 (OU2) covers contaminated soil.
The ROD outlines the plan for OU1 and calls for removing contamination in the groundwater from the former Waste Storage Tank Area and the Unlined Waste Disposal Pit areas. Under EPA oversight, the entities deemed responsible for contamination on the site – known as a Potentially Responsible Party (PRP) group – performed several cleanup actions.
The PRP constructed an air sparging and soil vapor extraction system for groundwater contamination near source areas. This process removes contamination by injecting air directly into contaminated groundwater to pull contaminants from groundwater in the form of vapors. The vapors are vacuumed out of the soil and captured.
The original plan also required a system to extract and treat groundwater from certain highly contaminated spots.
EPA amended its original 2009 ROD for the OU1 groundwater cleanup action in September of 2019. Years of groundwater sampling data showed that groundwater hot spots no longer have high contamination. EPA decided to first gauge the effectiveness of the air sparging and soil vapor extraction followed by allowing the larger area of groundwater to naturally recover while being carefully monitored.
EPA issued a Record of Decision (ROD) in 2011 to address soil contamination that is considered Operable Unit 2 (OU2). OU2 is a small area of soil contamination near the former Waste Storage Tank Area. Under EPA’s oversight, the PRP removed contaminated soil using the same soil vapor extraction system connected to the OU1 system.
Based on groundwater sampling, EPA determined that the groundwater areas of highly contamianted groundwater were no longer present. In 2019, EPA issued a ROD amendment to OU1 changing groundwater remedy in those areas from extraction and treatment to Monitored Natural Attenuation.
NJDEP established a Classification Exception Area (CEA) on in January of 2020 to prevent the use of the groundwater for drinking water.
