By Sunayana Prabhu
KEYPORT – Environmental experts have found traces of benzene, lead, arsenic and PFAS (“forever chemicals”) among other contaminants on the nearly 60-acre former Aeomarine site and adjoining landfill.
However, while some contaminants were within or slightly above the New Jersey groundwater standards, consultants said the results so far do not trigger state-mandated emergency action and show no current pathway to human exposure. The investigation is not yet complete. Additional sampling by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) at both Keyport and Union Beach is ongoing and findings will be presented at the next public hearing scheduled for Sept. 22.
Two consultants, Lawra Dodge from Excel Environmental Resources, hired by the borough, and Justin Protasiewicz, managing partner and a licensed professional engineer from SESI Consulting Engineers, which is working for the prospective purchaser of the site, Pacer Group Holdings, presented their findings separately. During an Aug. 13 special public hearing at the Keyport High School gym, the consultants offered groundwater, soil and landfill gas data from the site.
The Aeromarine site at the end of Walnut Street wraps around Chingarora Creek and borders Raritan Bay. The southern portion is an abandoned municipal landfill that predates the 1980s. The site is currently owned by Bushwick Realty Corp. and Bay Ridge Realty Corporation (BRC). Pacer has been under contract to purchase the site since October 2025 for commercial redevelopment. Protasiewicz confirmed Pacer is not considering residential development or data centers at the site.
While the environmental investigation has been ongoing at the site, efforts tripled when media reports earlier this year amplified some residents’ concerns about incidences of cancer.
Excel’s investigation focused on the industrial complex of the Aeromarine site and nearby groundwater. SESI examined both the landfill and the industrial complex. The NJDEP is conducting its own water sampling in Raritan Bay, Chingarora Creek and its tributaries. The agency has also expanded sampling to 16 additional sites – 13 in Keyport and three in Union Beach.
Reports from the three agencies will be compiled into a final remediation and future reuse plan for the property.
Chemicals Detected
Both SESI and Excel reported slightly elevated contaminant levels at the industrial site but also noted that the NJDEP considered those numbers typical for a legacy municipal landfill and older waterfront industrial operations.
On the industrial parcel itself, both Excel’s and SESI’s investigations mostly overlapped.
“We do have concentrations of PFOA, PFOS and GenX that were reported in the groundwater at varying concentrations above the cleanup standards,” Dodge said. GenX is part of a family of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl) chemicals. But the NJDEP’s groundwater cleanup standards for those compounds are “14 parts per trillion,” Dodge said, noting that they “are extremely low standards.”
The investigation found low levels of arsenic, but in particulate or solid form, Dodge said, not “dissolved in the ground.” Dodge said arsenic is a “naturally occurring metal” in New Jersey’s soil.
SESI additionally identified a historic fill on the industrial parcel bordering Chingarora Creek bridge with lead above residential soil standards and isolated arsenic “hot spots.” A historic fill is just sand or non-native material used to raise the topographic elevation of the site. Those areas lie mostly under gravel parking lots, building slabs or in wooded sections away from regular public access.
“We do know that there’s naturally occurring arsenic in the area. So, right now… we have not been able to distinguish whether these hot spots of arsenic are naturally occurring or deposited from some of the activities on the site,” Protasiewicz said.
SESI also found polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at about a depth of 8 feet in a wooded area near the Chingarora Creek bridge. The area is at the east end of the bridge, near the intersection of Walnut and First streets.
At the landfill, SESI found PFAS compounds, including PFOA, PFOS and GenX, in addition to 1,4dioxane in groundwater at levels above New Jersey’s groundwater quality standards, but in ranges consistent with similar brownfield-designated sites statewide.
“We did find elevated levels of PFOS compounds, specifically PFOA, PFOS, in the landfill materials,” Protasiewicz said.
“This is not uncommon for a landfill,” he added.
Human Exposure Studied
Despite the detections, both consultants said the data to date do not indicate contaminants are currently reaching residents at harmful levels.
Dodge said Excel’s work was driven by the question of whether polluted groundwater under the site could release vapors that migrate into nearby homes, a process known as vapor intrusion.
Excel’s objective was to look at the “occurrence, movement and quality of groundwater,” she said. “We looked at the possibility of a vapor intrusion pathway and found none.”
An important detail in Excel’s finding was that shallow groundwater flows from the residential area south of Walnut Street toward the Aeromarine property and landfill – not the other way.
“We confirmed that groundwater is actually at higher elevation south of Walnut, so groundwater actually flows from the south towards the (Aeromarine) site, not the other way around,” Dodge said.
That means contaminants beneath the site are not migrating under nearby houses in a way that could drive vapors into basements, the consultants said.
Dodge added that recent scientific literature shows the PFAS compounds detected in groundwater are “low volatile or nonvolatile,” making them unlikely to pose a vapor intrusion risk.
Both experts also noted that Keyport residents are served by a municipal water system that draws from deeper aquifers, not from shallow private wells near the Aeromarine site.
“Groundwater at this site is not used for any reason. It’s not used for drinking water. It’s not used for any other purpose,” Dodge said. So, the borough’s drinking water wells “do not have any contaminant issues,” she said.
More Testing Planned
The NJDEP is conducting its own rounds of sampling in Raritan Bay, Chingarora Creek and nearby neighborhoods in both Keyport and Union Beach, including soil gas and groundwater testing along Walnut Street and at a former auto sales site.
Acting NJDEP Commissioner Ed Potosnak told residents that, so far, “the department has found no evidence of an exposure pathway,” but added that the investigation is not finished and additional data could require more work.
From 2021 to 2025, Potosnak said the NJDEP issued fines totaling more than $1 million against the owner. “What we’ve seen in our experience at the department is that redevelopment is the fastest way to get the sites properly closed and anything there secured from being a pathway to human exposure in the future,” Potosnak said.
Protasiewicz estimated that properly capping and closing the landfill alone could take over a year and cost between $5 million and $10 million.
The article originally appeared in the August 20 – 26, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
