Tuesday, August 3, 2004

By NATE SCHWEBER
HERALD NEWS

PATERSON - Waiting for state environmental staff to approve construction of a Home Depot on Route 20 is like having a crush on a woman, says Gordon LaForge, who owns the land slated for the big-box store.

"If you don't know what she thinks about you, it's torture," he said.

It will take several months - and at least $1 million - LaForge said, to find out if the state Department of Environmental Protection will allow him to sell his vacant 10-acre lot on the corner of McLean Boulevard and Fourth Avenue to Home Depot. The project, which has been delayed since 2000 while the DEP assessed environmental damage at the site, hinges on finding a way to clean up contaminated groundwater.

Industrial solvents, similar to dry-cleaning fluid, pollute the groundwater and bedrock to as much as 300 feet below the surface, said Fred Mumford, spokesman for the DEP. In the next few weeks, the department will allow LaForge to experiment with cleaning the shallow groundwater by pumping cleaning agents into the earth through monitor wells already on the site.

In coming months, the DEP will require LaForge to drill more monitoring wells on the site in order for the state agency to devise a plan to clean the deep groundwater, Mumford said.

The DEP is being meticulous about cleanup because the property sits close to wells from which Fair Lawn gets its drinking water, Mumford said.

LaForge said that, at the DEP's request, he has drilled 61 monitoring wells at the site since 2002, some as deep as 50 feet. He added that he has been in daily negotiations with the DEP for months, trying to work out a deal as to how to clean the groundwater.

"I know it will cost at least a million dollars," he said.

LaForge said he has spent $3.6 million on cleanup at the site so far, including removing 40,000 tons of contaminated soil.

Lyons Piece Dye Works ran a factory at the site from 1898 until 1973, LaForge said. There were 20 underground storage tanks, most of them undocumented, which accounted for much of the pollution.

LaForge said he hopes that the DEP will allow him to try to clean all the groundwater by pumping the cleansing chemicals into the ground through the existing monitoring wells. If the DEP requires him to build a pump that brings groundwater to the surface to be cleaned and pumped back down, he will not be able to afford it, he said.

LaForge said he will ask the state to pay for any new monitoring wells and anything else the DEP requires. He said he would not ask the city of Paterson for more money.

In 2001, the City Council granted LaForge $1 million in Urban Enterprise Zone funds.

UEZ Administrator Jan Northrop said she is not concerned about losing the investment.

"As far as we're concerned, the project is still on," she said.

In the past 18 months, LaForge said, he also received a $300,000 loan from the city of Paterson and a $425,000 loan from the state Economic Development Authority for cleanup. The money will be repaid when the deal is closed.

Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres said he has been in intense negotiations with the DEP over the site, discussing "an insurance policy" to protect involved parties.

The proposed 137,000-square-foot Home Depot could create up to 200 jobs and provide as much as $1.5 million in sales taxes returned to the city through the Urban Enterprise Zone program, Torres said.

Deborah Hoffman, Passaic County's director of economic development, said that Lowe's and several other retailers have shown interest in building along Route 20.

"It really is a crucial area for the city, and this Home Depot is the heart of the redevelopment of the area," she said.

Hunsy Charmichael, who lives in the neighboring Riverside Terrace apartments and works at a Home Depot in Newburgh, N.Y., said he wants the chain store to move in to provide jobs for his neighbors.

"These people around here need those jobs," he said. "Would I want to transfer there? Damn right!"

E-mail: schweber@northjersey.com