Middlesex

Middlesex Sampling Plant (FUSRAP Site), Middlesex NJ &
Middlesex Municipal Landfill Site, Middlesex NJ


The Middlesex Sampling Plant is located in the Borough of Middlesex in New Jersey, approximately 56 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Trenton and 42 kilometers (26 miles) southwest of Newark. The plant was established by the Manhattan Engineering District (MED), an early predecessor to the US Department of Energy (DOE), to sample, store and ship uranium and thorium ores. When MED operations ended in 1955, the Atomic Energy Agency (AEC), used this site to store and sample thorium. Primary contaminants at the site included uranium, radium, thorium, lead and organics. In the 1960s, all operations were terminated and all remaining thorium sampling activities were transferred. When AEC activities ended on the site, the area was decontaminated. EM completed this site as part of the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). The FUSRAP Program was transferred to the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in 1997, in accordance with the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act for FY 1998.

Ownership of the Middlesex North Site, located in Middlesex, New Jersey, is divided between the Middlesex Presbyterian Church and the Borough of Middlesex. In 1948, approximately 6,000 cubic yards of soil with radioactive contamination from the Middlesex Sampling Plant was disposed of at the landfill.

In 1961, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission removed a portion of contaminated soil from the site and covered the area with 2 feet of clean soil. DOE designated the site for remediation under FUSRAP in 1980. In 1984 and 1986, DOE removed contaminated material from an area of approximately 3 acres at depths of 1 to 19 feet. DOE certified that the site complied with applicable cleanup criteria and released the property for unrestricted use in April 1989.