RIDGEWOOD — A $1.5 million capital budget project to remove contaminated soil from the Schedler-Zabriskie property was part of the village’s $64.8 million 2025 budget introduction.
Village Manger Keith Kazmark confirmed after Wednesday’s meeting that the entire 1,100-foot long, four-foot-high berm along Route 17 north on the west border of the historic Schedler property is contaminated and will have to be removed, along with soil that had previously been spread on flat portions of the 7-acre site at 460 W. Saddle River Road.
“Later this spring the testing will be done, we’ll get a report back, and the report will outline for us exactly what needs to be done on the property from a remediation standpoint,” Kazmark said.
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The remediation is in addition to $350,000 in the 2024 capital budget for soil testing and archeological study of the site.
A revised May 2024 application to the State Office of Historic Preservation to build an adult-sized multi-purpose artificial turf field north of the house is being held “in abeyance” as a result, Kazmark said. According to that application, the village has already spent $5.4 million on the site — $3 million for purchases, $1.8 million for house repairs, and $671,350 on field and grounds work.
The contaminants include benzo[a]pyrene, a common byproduct of combustion and cooking.
The entire berm erected in on Route 17 north on the west side of the Schedler property in Ridgewood is contaminated and must be removed.
The village oversaw and submitted results of tests taken by various consultants of soil samples from the six locations, but the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection deemed the tests inadequate in number and scope, according to a December 2023 letter from the DEP’s Bureau of Solid Waste Compliance and Enforcement.
The Schedler property is a quarter-mile northeast of the Old Paramus Reformed Church at 660 East Glen Ave., where George Washington quartered troops several times during the Revolutionary War. As a result, the property was nationally landmarked in 2020 for its historic importance, although a preliminary December 2023 archeological survey of the site reported “no clear evidence of Revolutionary War period activity.”
Contaminated soil piles spread on the Schdler-Zabriskie property will also have to be removed.
Kazmark said the village is holding “weekly roundup meetings” with its historical consultant, soil testers and archeological experts on how the dirt will be removed to minimize the possibility of damaging or destroying artifacts that may remain on the site.
“It’s too soon to tell what’s going to happen,” Kazmark said. “But we have to remove this dirt.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Contaminated berm along Route 17 in Ridgewood must be removed