Watershed Group Wants Better Science About Ecology of Hercules Site in Roxbury

ROXBURY, NJ – The recent discovery of baby brook trout in the Black River near its source on the former Hercules explosives site in Kenvil means a thorough ecological study of the huge tract is warranted, environmentalists asserted this week.

The call for more detailed analysis of the heavily-polluted, 1000-acre property came at a public forum that took place Thursday evening at the Roxbury Senior Center in Succasunna. The forum was hosted by the non-profit Raritan Headwaters Association (RHA).

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The Black River, which begins at the Great Spring across Route 46 from the IHOP restaurant in Kenvil, is the northernmost part of the Raritan River ecosystem. Both young brook trout and American brook lamprey – animals whose presence indicates especially clean water -were recently found in the river near the spring.

While that’s good news, the RHA is concerned ongoing site remediation by Hercules, and possible development of the site, could pollute the little stream and/or groundwater. Hercules is engaged in cleaning PCBs and TNT from several parts of the property.

“Right now, there's nothing coming off the property in terms of pollutants, which is a really good thing,” said RHA stream monitoring volunteer Brian Lynch at the meeting. “But in order for some of this remediation to happen, trees have to be removed, the vegetation has to be removed and the soil has to be dug up. All of this creates vectors for pollutants to get into surface water and, maybe groundwater.”

He, and others with the RHA, think Hercules needs to more adequately explain what it’s doing to protect the Great Spring and Black River. They also believe an updated ecological analysis of the entire property is warranted before any new development there is proposed.

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The only such development proposal that has surfaced since explosives manufacturing ceased at the site in 1996 was put forth two years ago by Hartz Mountain Industries. It wanted to build 2.5 million square feet of warehouses on about 200 acres but withdrew the proposal a month ago.

John Larkin, a licensed site remediation specialist (LSRP) hired by the RHA to study documents related to the Hercules tract, spoke at Thursday’s forum. He said he believes Hercules is doing a good job removing the PCBs and TNT, but he agreed with the RHA that much of the ecological information about the site is outdated.

“If there's anything that concerns me here, it's just the extent of the ecological evaluation, just because some of that ecological evaluation work was done back in 2016 with the remedial investigation,” Larkin said. “And new things are being found, you know. That was 2016. That was eight years ago.”

RHA Conservation Scientist Kristi MacDonald also called for new and “extensive ecological surveys” of the property.

“The site has not been surveyed properly,” she said. “You can't just use these large-scale maps and not go down there to have qualified biologists doing surveys, looking at what species are there; plants, animals, fungi. I bet we find some very, very cool things there.”

She said Hercules needs to “protect the Great Spring wetland complex” now and in the future, not just for animals but also for the millions of New Jersey residents affected by the Raritan Headwaters water quality.

“It needs to be recognized in the documents that there need to be special protections for that area,” MacDonald said. "You know, just making sure that those places are protected as the headwaters of the Black River."

About 20 people, including Roxbury Councilman Fred Hall, attended the meeting. Also there was Ed Meeks of Hercules, the manager of the ongoing remediation.

Asked about the continual request, by the RHA, for more “transparency” related to the work, Meeks noted the company created a website for that purpose and insisted Hercules is complying with all laws and regulations.

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