By DON STINE
Clean-up efforts will continue on a contaminated section on the former Welsh Farm tract, off Old Corlies Avenue in Neptune, under a a state grant recently received by Neptune.
A grant of about $60,000 has been received from the Hazardous Discharge Site Remediation Fund Public Entity Program HDSRF to continue clean-up efforts. The program, charged with cleaning up a hazardous substance or hazardous waste, is administered by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
“This is basically additional remediation to the former Welsh Farms property at 703 Corlies Avenue,” said Leeanne Hoffman, the township’s Director of Planning and Engineering.
Hoffman said the contaminated area on the tract has been being remediated for several years now using a similar $200,000 grant granted to the former owners, Old Welsh Farms, LLC, to start remediation and the township eventually acquired the property.
The dairy farm had a fueling station for its fleet of trucks and some of that fuel leaked into the ground over years.
“We are in the midst of remediation and there are new technologies out there and injections that will help dissipate petroleum in the ground,” Hoffman said
In the meantime, the township will seek additional grants, as needed, and Hoffman estimates the site should be remediated within the next one to two years.
The 6.46-acre tract was originally the Wardell dairy, the oldest-operating dairy in Monmouth County, until it closed after merging with Welsh Farms in 1975. It is the largest undeveloped tract on Old Corlies Avenue and has been vacant for a number of years.
The new Veteran’s Park has been built on a portion of tract and the rest of the area is expected to be used for passive recreation.
HDSRF grants and loans are available to public entities, private entities, and non-profit organizations that perform a remediation pursuant to DEP’s Site Remediation Program requirements.
Established in July 1993, the HDSRF provide funding for the remediation of a suspected or known discharge of a hazardous substance or hazardous waste. It is funded through a constitutionally-dedicated portion of the New Jersey Corporate Business Tax and is administered through a partnership between the DEP and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.
