The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has called for additional soil and groundwater testing at the closed Millington Quarry on Stonehouse Road, to the approval of township officials.

 Millington Quarry, Inc. and Tilcon New York, Inc., the company that had been quarrying the site before operations ceased last May, were this month informed that the DEP wants further testing at three areas of the quarry where water and soil samples showed a limited presence of contaminants. A letter to the quarry on Oct. 16 called for the quarry to follow the state's methodology in conducting the additional testing before the onset of cold weather.

"As I and the other Township Committee members have said, the owners and operators should test the entire site, not just three small areas," Mayor Scott Spitzer said in an email.  "This isn't just a matter of regulatory requirement. This is something that a good corporate citizen would recognize that its neighbors believe is appropriate," Spitzer wrote.

The township has been embroiled in a legal dispute with the quarry based on suspicions of contaminated soil being trucked into the property over a period of several years. The soil was used to fill in steeply quarried areas. Random testing of some of those truckloads by a township consultant identified the presence of some contaminants, according to township officials.

David Oster, a section chief with the DEP's office of Brownfields Remediation & Reuse, wrote in his Oct. 4 letter that the quarry's limited groundwater investigation into wells on the site had shown elevated levels of arsenic, lead and other volatile chemicals in one well, and arsenic exceeding the DEP's standards in another.

The letter also reported findings of pesticides and other contaminants in some soil samples that exceed the DEP's standards for residential and non-residential soil cleanup criteria. The quarry owners have long had plans to eventually sell the closed quarry property for redevelopment with home sites.

On Thursday, Oster said most of those contaminants just slightly exceed state standards, and would likely be capped with another material before the state would sign off on the quarry's obligation for testing and remediating the property. Oster added the quarry already has plans underway for further testing of the groundwater. 

Oster added arsenic might be a naturally occurring substance in the type of rock found at the quarry.

The type of contaminants found in soil samples were typical of asphalt and similar materials from more urban areas, Oster said on Thursday. The soil samples were similar to the type of samples that might be taken in Hudson, Union or Bergen counties, he said.

"The Township Committee wishes to expressed its thanks to the DEP for its review and requirement for additional soil and groundwater testing at the quarry," the township said in a statement issued in response to Oster's letters. "The Township Committee applauds the DEP action. The testing that was done to date, as reflected in the Remedial Investigation Report dated April 2010, was inadequate," according to the township.

As of Thursday, an attorney who has in the past responded on behalf of the Millington Quarry, Mark Morgan, did not return phone calls or emails requesting a reaction to the state's letters.

The township's statement reiterated officials' position that initial soil and water tests performed by a consultant for the quarry strengthen the Township Committee's belief that the entire site should be appropriately tested rather than just part of the property, as in the current testing plan for the DEP.

"The Township continues to call upon Millington Quarry, Inc., the owner of the site, and Tilcon New York, Inc., the most recent operators of the site, to commit to testing the entire site, " according to the township's statement.

A copy of the township's statement, and Oster's letters to the quarry, are posted on the Bernards Township website.