Government Shut Down Halts Cleanup at Local Superfund Site

Clean up work at a local Superfund site will be halted due to the government shut down, borough officials said.

Doylestown Borough Manager John Davis said work to clean up contaminated soils and monitor drinking water at the former Chem Fab property will stop until the federal government is reopened.

The government closed at midnight Tuesday because congress failed to pass a continuing resolution.

Davis said EPA officials informed him Tuesday that there would be no further work on the site as long as the government is shut down. “They are buttoning up whatever they are involved in and leaving today. Previously scheduled sampling has been cancelled until the shut down is over,” Davis said.

The EPA announced in September it would begin excavating contaminated soils at the local Superfund site, located at 300-360 North Broad Street. 

The EPA is also monitoring groundwater contamination at the site. In September, the EPA began installing new monitoring wells to find out the extent of groundwater contamination.

Chem-Fab Corporation operated an electroplating and metal processing facility on that site from 1965 to 1994.