Combe Fill South Landfill
Chester and Washington Townships, NJ

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EPA added the Combe Fill South Landfill site in Chester and Washington Townships, New Jersey to the Superfund National Priority List on September 1, 1983 because hazardous chemicals were found in the soil and ground water. The site contains 65 acre of fill area that sits on a 115 acre plot of land in Morris County. The site was a municipal landfill from the 1940s until 1981. In 1978, Combe Fill Corporation (CFC) bought the landfill. While under CFC’s management, procedures at the landfill violated many of the New Jersey solid waste administrative codes. CFC went bankrupt in 1981, and the landfill was not properly closed.

A citizen’s group sampled the groundwater, surface water, and various liquids which flowed from the landfill and found them to be contaminated. Ground water beneath the site was contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are potentially harmful contaminants that easily evaporate in the air. Approximately 170 people live within half a mile of the landfill, and most of the residents use private wells as their source of drinking water. In 1986, EPA and the State selected a containment remedy for the site.
The site was addressed in two stages; immediate action and a long-term remedy. The immediate action involved providing in-home water treatment systems to residents potentially affected by groundwater contamination. The long-term cleanup had six components: providing an alternative water supply system for affected residents, covering the landfill, installing a gas collection system, pumping and treating the shallow ground water and site-related liquids, installing runoff controls, and performing a study of the deep aquifer. The ground water treatment system has been fully functional since June 1997 and the project is currently in the operation and maintenance phase. The deep aquifer study is currently going on.

Combe Fill South Landfill Chester and Washington Townships, NJ