Evergreen is responsible for subsurface petroleum impacts that existed prior to the sale of the facility to PES in 2012. The investigation of that historic contamination includes AOI-11, which is the lower aquifer beneath the facility. Evergreen will continue to address those pre-2012 impacts in the lower aquifer throughout the Act 2 process and AOI 11 will be included in Evergreen’s future Cleanup Plans, which are yet to be submitted for the site.
It should be noted that the NJDEP is routinely involved with groundwater investigations of the Potomac-Raritan-Magothy aquifer (PRM) due to sources of contamination located in New Jersey that are not related to impacts in AOI 11 beneath the former refinery. There has been no demonstrated connection between groundwater impacts in AOI 11 due to past refinery operations and the PRM groundwater quality in New Jersey. However, this will be verified through future fate and transport modeling efforts.
In addition, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has provided the following information: “At this time NJDEP believes the existing hydrogeologic, geologic and water quality data indicate any contaminants that may be in the subsurface at the PES refinery in Philadelphia do not pose a threat to water supply wells in the PRM aquifer system in NJ. At this time NJDEP does not consider PFAS contamination at the former Philadelphia Refinery to be a threat to NJ via a flow path through the lower PRM aquifer. This is based on several lines of reasoning:
1) The lower PRM is the water table aquifer at the site and is very shallow under the Delaware River. We consider the Delaware River to be recharging this aquifer. As such, it is likely a recharge boundary to any contaminants that might be entering it on the Pa side. Studies conducted in the PRM aquifer system within New Jersey indicate that the Delaware River acts as a significant hydraulic flow boundary limiting any groundwater source area from extending to the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River. More information is in Pope and Watt, 2005 (https://secure-web.cisco.com/1QNK4DBcOrtQ0JjsHbl5b79X05rdft7c469uiTdKulpe4LmzQdI8DlVAwc-Qfit5xZaOSyf8SmyCazeksgma0yviIb0WmR8GYHAJLHKJThyiEmd-S9Kukws7fqcy65mV6TVrzjNGv3EvgDHo6ts71tPnEJ9cIeg8HRzRtzixilAKwb8XKUi00oRHePni3O3a9Q_CAyKJ5wQeQO1W4tOCje24nrJ9l3RlrD_3WC-WwX4tiqhANiSdZIxwY6QeRnvadbOQl6Zakw7WvFnBYJUyUdw/https%3A%2F%2Fpubs.er.usgs.gov%2Fpublication%2Fsir20045101) and Navoy and Carleton, 1995 (https://secure-web.cisco.com/14SrVjTcT2kOO14dfWEDsnY2-F6ono0r1v3EBQ0zBDvYkIY7PlRyyQAGvGwEo-HCBN-Lk-2GJah_eUPLTO2eVp4LfSNHdLg0KltKTXRShNCxzwD7lm8uJ_-iKknmChzbBFz8mmsC8EJgHzGEAQO5NYVK7We9_p5RFVEoCDgvlfv9-6CrS1-2t4mu4XN5v1NxooG3KVIaAWpoWFVv4r9n_QX_8lukx4zSvoKOj4x_0Rbc9JcMPRE6aLaMGXYAk-9-Tkxj1HeibFrTB1uPpSZ30GA/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.state.nj.us%2Fdep%2Fnjgs%2Fpricelst%2Fgsreport%2Fgsr38.pdf).
2) That the Delaware River acts as a recharge boundary is supported by aquifer tests in NJ conducted in the lower PRM close to the river. These tests show significant leakage which would not occur if the Delaware River was not a recharge boundary.
3) NJDEP delineated well head protection areas for unconfined wells within the Potomac using the methods detailed in Spayd and Johnson, 2003, available at https://secure-web.cisco.com/1azAbsv8HMFq0INHE6kb7P-2gon-zhCTNtpOtbPp5cpzHbNygIhgHFWqQMNaeG5RXaLLrTkicXc-TEg6qbExHCUX6yNJ2I3BmzKv61RrqPBmvTVqgsNPcKZb6Bp-KxZv7E3EFpXppbe76BGvyvQWuNxZPSPe4qqlQQjt3W-thgf9hMBQAvqe-o9X0J3bmDtAG0ctemEGHLSGEOvynvkJjXOJu3KyMHtTMhXQeD1ZHgcrb0CDtxcni5O1G8K6VeMySpEf6WILwNBWPbTY5BJn0qQ/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.state.nj.us%2Fdep%2Fnjgs%2Fpricelst%2Fofreport%2Fofr03-1.pdf. These calculated areas represent the source areas to wells based on three time of travel intervals of 2, 5 and 12 years. The delineated source areas indicate that no wells completed within the Potomac Formation in NJ have well head protection areas which extend into Pennsylvania.
4) Reported water quality data (https://secure-web.cisco.com/17_sg7vCSGdmSn5p4EO7KLlLD3G3QlM6urSdbDChJjvcaN-__mNiUOLS-w9wTQpzoJlfeLgzqnliioZik_WFqDcD_dDEgg9HusX3Fii9608-74LtQiHsYzT8dMW_BpF96-K2aXrGt7zOTkzP7zQnhfFIcYQO1ALaSuDl3T3KRsoAlSnpAk1zszi9I9-lXCKJXicMuBIidT7KbGy9OEa9w__dAjRmhUEglexfL2lhmlHISnz96BWN6t4qMe0f7CF7VrRQn-adZaoJwzLi2uV3TfA/https%3A%2F%2Fwww9.state.nj.us%2FDEP_WaterWatch_public%2F) indicate no contamination is present in supply wells for the National Park Water Department, which are the closest NJ supply wells to the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery. The refinery has been in operation for more than 100 years and it appears that no measurable contamination has migrated to these wells. All public supply wells in New Jersey are required to monitor and report water quality data quarterly therefore any potential contaminants would be identified.”