The fight to clean up the Ringwood Mines/Landfill Superfund site has been going on since the 1980s.
The EPA assured the community that all contamination had been removed in 1993, only to call on Ford to clean up more waste and ultimately relist the site as a National Priority in 2005. It is the only Superfund site in the program's history to be listed twice.
Because of this, we believe that the only way to ensure that this mess is finally cleaned up is to remove all of the toxic contamination from the ground once and for all.
- Ringwood council suspends recycling center plan pending groundwater investigation
5/23/16 - Two Superfund-related resolutions were passed during the May 17 meeting of the Borough Council.
- Ringwood halts plan to build recycling center on dump site
5/20/16 - Ringwood officials have suspended plans to build a recycling center on top of a mountain of contaminated soil at the Ford Motor Co. Superfund site until federal regulators complete an investigation of another dangerous chemical found there recently.
- Ringwood Superfund site: The voters should decide
5/9/16 - The New Jersey Sierra Club is behind a referendum that could ensure the proper cleanup of the Ringwood Superfund site and says a referendum will only be successful if people conduct a full campaign to drum up support.
- Ringwood officials defend capping plan at Superfund site
5/5/16 - At a packed Borough Council meeting that drew more than 100 people, Ringwood officials and their consultants reiterated that the capping plan will protect public health.
- The Record: Ringwood vote
5/3/16 - Voters in Ringwood should weigh in on plan to cap conatmination at former Ford plant.
- Ringwood residents petitioning to force full cleanup of Superfund site
5/1/16 -A group of Ringwood residents is banking on a seldom-used provision of municipal law that could force Ford Motor Co. and the borough government to excavate 166,000 tons of contaminated soil at its Superfund site instead of placing a barrier over it. - Lowry: In Ringwood, a mounting distrust
4/26/16 - A Superfund site and the people around it - No changes to Ringwood cleanup; EPA backs barrier plan despite dioxane discovery
4/21/16 - The discovery last year of a dangerous chemical at the Ringwood Superfund site is unlikely to change a controversial plan to place a barrier over 166,000 tons of contaminated soil rather than excavate as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency originally ...
- Outdated tests failed to spot dangerous chemical at Ringwood Superfund site
4/20/16 - The Environmental Protection Agency and Ford Motor Co. were using an outdated testing method and were not even looking for a dangerous chemical at the Ringwood Superfund site until it was discovered last year by a consultant for the borough.
- Tests find no traces of dioxane in Wanaque Reservoir
4/8/16 - Water samples taken from the Wanaque Reservoir last month showed no trace of a dangerous chemical found a mile upstream in Ringwood at the Ford Superfund site, officials confirmed.
- More dioxane found at Ford site in Ringwood
3/28/16 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the discovery of more 1,4-dioxane at the site is not a surprise since it was already found in several places near where Ford Motor Co. dumped tons of waste more than 50 years ago.
A Toxic Legacy
Decades of Ford lead paint sludge are still in our very backyard
The story in the press
The Problem
We will be sharing more facts and information in the future, but to start, we wanted to share some of the coverage our problem has gotten in the press. It is a good place to start in order to understand some of the issues at hand.