Ramapo College Students to Report Assessment of Environmental Justice Issues in Ringwood
On May 8, the Environmental Assessment class of Ramapo College’s undergraduate Environmental Studies program will be presenting their Draft Environmental Impact Statement for public comment. The presentation will be at 10 am in Friends Hall, SC219, in the Student Center.
The DEIS was done at the request of Chief Vincent Mann of the Rampough Lenape Turtle Clan in Ringwood, New Jersey. It incorporates Environmental Justice as its main focal point in addressing further actions on the Ringwood Superfund site.
In the 1960’s, Ford Motor Company dumped toxic paint sludge in a former iron mining community in Ringwood, New Jersey and various other locations. In 1984, the site was added to Superfund’s National Priorities List, and remediation began in 1987. The site was delisted in 1994 but relisted in 2006—it is the first Superfund site to ever be re-added to the NPL. The Ramapoughs have many health problems which they feel resulted from the contamination and are additionally concerned that the paint sludge may be leaching into the Wanaque Reservoir, which supplies water to over two million people.
The class, organized into a firm known as RISE (Research and Investigation for Society and the Environment), analyzed the Environmental Protection Agency and Ford’s findings and compiled them into a DEIS instead of the customary Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study. It is their goal to have this document considered by the EPA as it readies to issue a Record of Decision regarding further actions on the Ringwood site.
For more information, contact: Prof. Michael Edelstein at medelste@ramapo.edu.
-- Tiffany Liang
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