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Local News Article

DEP Meeting Scheduled in New Hanover Township

Written by Larry Roeder, Editor
2012-03-22

Will review Layfield Road cleanup site

A public meeting will be held by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Tuesday, April 17 at 7 p.m. The meeting will be held in the Boyertown Junior High East Auditorium, 2020 Big Road in Gilbertsville.

The public information meeting is being held to provide area residents with information regarding groundwater contamination near the area of Layfield and Hoffmansville roads in New Hanover Township.

According to a press release issued by the DEP, they first learned of the onsite contamination at Good Oil, Layfield Road, New Hanover Township, during an aboveground storage tank closure in 2007.

Offsite groundwater contamination was first noted in June 2011 by the Montgomery County Health Department. DEP has been working since that time to ensure tanks at the Good Oil site are properly removed.

DEP is also monitoring onsite wells, install offsite monitoring wells and sampling area streams. The agency is also sampling off-site wells in the vicinity of the site and providing bottled water to impacted residents.

According to New Hanover Township meeting minutes from 2011, Cynthia Smith of Horizon Engineering was present at the Nov. supervisors meeting seeking consideration for preliminary/final plan approval for a project that was designed to bring the property closer to compliance with township regulations. Violations existed on the property and the tenant on the property, Henkels and McCoy, having a ten-year lease agreement has been cooperative in attempts to resolve undesirable conditions. Ethan Good, owner of the property, has been fined $21,000 by DEP for violations. The plan was approved by the supervisors.

It was also mentioned at that meeting that the DEP is currently testing for volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) in two monitoring wells and that Good is aggressively being pursued by DEP and could be required to clean up the site if VOC’s are detected.

DEP staff will present information on the work completed to date, outline future plans and answer related questions along with members from the Montgomery County Health Department.

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