Airport pays off Superfund debt; owed EPA more than $16M

WALL TOWNSHIP — The Monmouth Executive Airport has paid off its debt to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of more than $16,000,000 in site decontamination fees, according to officials from both entities.

A federal court ordered the airport, known as Wall Herald Corporation (WHC), to pay liability fees in 2010 for parts of the property that contained chemicals such as 1,4-dioxane, a clear liquid with a faint odor that mixes easily with water.

The EPA found the substance in the groundwater near the runway of the airport and underneath Route 34, according to an EPA feasibility study from May 2023. The contamination was caused by The Monitor Devices, Inc./Intercircuits, Inc. The company manufactured printed circuit boards at the two-acre site between 1977 to 1981.

During such a period, the manufacturing process resulted in the production of wastewater that contained heavy metals such as copper and lead as well as solvents and corrosive acids. The land is now known as an EPA-designated Superfund site.

The debt restitution, paid on Sept. 26, came the same day as Monmouth County Commissioner Director Thomas A. Arnone’s comments in a letter to the editor of The Coast Star about the airport and the county’s possibility of condemning it. He stated last week that “consultants will evaluate the airport’s financial health and the millions of dollars in outstanding obligations the owner still owes to the federal government.”

A Monmouth County spokesperson said in an email Tuesday, “Upon learning of the size of the debt and the continuous applications to delay payment, the county became seriously concerned about the owner’s ability to maintain or improve the airport.

TAX IMPLICATIONS ON WALL TOWNSHIP

WHC has stated it pays roughly $900,000 per year in property taxes to Wall Township, leaving questions on the difference to be made up on such a figure if the county were to acquire the airport.

On Aug. 22, Commissioner Arnone said at a commissioners meeting that the township “will not lose any rateable that it has coming in from the airport.”

He said, “Part of our exploratory position on this is multiple things, including to make sure Wall Township could be made whole on all the ratables they receive (from the airport).”

WHC was once in arrears on its tax payments for a period of time, however, it is currently in good withstanding, according to Wall Township Administrator Jeff Bertrand.

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