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A few years ago, near where my family lived in New Jersey, there was a small newspaper article mentioning that construction on a set of mid-rise condominiums on the Delaware River was being notably delayed, with the vague implication that there was some trouble with financing or construction or something. [To be fair, both of these were true, but for very not-obvious reasons.] But then you start tracing back through the history of the site:
They had selected the site for the condos because it had been the site of a large flea market from the late 1970s to early 2000s, so all they'd have to do was dig up the parking lots, lay in utilities, and compact the soil to be ready to build. The flea market was there because it was the site of a massive drive-in movie theatre built in the early 1950s, so all they had had to do was put up some cheap buildings that were eventually condemned and torn down. The drive-in movie theatre was there because the land had already been cleared and flattened by the US government, so it was cheap to put in a parking lot and big screen.
Why had the government so kindly cleared and flattened the ground? Well, the site was right next to a small bridge across the Delaware; on the other side of the bridge was Frankford Arsenal, where they produced munitions during both World Wars. And they had to test the munitions, so they'd drive over the bridge and test them at this site in New Jersey. And it turns out that sometimes they were either high or lazy or careless or something, because sometimes they didn't bother driving across the bridge, they'd just shell New Jersey from across the river instead.
The shelling led to a bunch of unexploded ordinance being in extremely unexpected places, until it started showing up eighty years later, when the condo people actually started digging up the ground to lay in their utilities. Of course, the condo association was quietly and casually referencing vague construction delays, because if people knew it was a munitions testing site and they'd recently found a bunch of UXO, no one would buy the condos.
[Also, while trying to look up details for this comment, I discovered three other cases of UXO in New Jersey in the past couple years. This is all very weird to me.]
Strange, because the idea of shelling New Jersey seems very natural to the rest of us
And it turns out that sometimes they were either high or lazy or careless or something
No they were just normal people from Philly
Damn, I'm from Jersey, though Central, and this is all news to me. And I'm aware of the Frankfurt Armory explosion and all of that, but never did any research beyond. Very interesting.
It's the old Tacony-Palmyra Drive-In site. More fun facts: part of the area they're building on used to be a landfill for Philadelphia, which is still contaminated - they've just paved it over. Oh, and the condos they're building? They're being used to fulfill the town's low-income housing requirements (as required by Mount Laurel I and II). I'm sure the developers are being quite open with the residents that their lovely new buildings are on top of a munitions testing site and a landfill ... :(
I'm not familiar with the particular site, but having dealt with similar sites through my work, it's presumably under the management of an LSRP as to any sort of landfill.
So landfills are pretty common everywhere. Back in the 20s, up to the 50s, they didn't have trucks to take garbage out, and so there was just a lace in town where they dumped everything. It's becoming common that the contents of these sites are identified, any potential contaminants are remediated, and the rest of the stuff is basically capped. There are procedures in place to demarcate where the landfill begins, in the event someone has to dig in the future, and beyond that they put loads of soil, gravel, and then a blacktop cap over top (in some cases they will leave areas green). There are strict standards for residential, and once those are met, they're deemed safe. Very common these days. And the kind of fill in these old sites is garbage that was present in the first half of the century, and it's mainly just junk. As I said, LSRPs would identify any potentially hazardous materials and remediate them.
Now, as far as a munitions depot, I have not come across them in my work, and so that's new to me. That being said, the sites for these affordable housing projects under Mt. Laurel are chosen by the municipalities, and so it wasn't a developer coming and saying yeah, it's fine; it was the municipality saying so. They're also generally part of a settlement in court.
During the long process of determining eligible sites, they conduct what's called a Phase 1 environmental assessment, which identifies potential for contamination. So if there is potential, they'd move on to additional, more detailed studies. And, basically, if you're aware of the site's history, so are the folks involved in the project, and they've moved on to identifying potential contaminants and remediating it. For affordable projects, they'll presumably get grant monies, either federal or state, which will require they comply with whatever guidelines are appropriate. NJDEP have some of the strictest standards (because we have so much experience) in the country.
But yeah, munitions depot, or at least what was essentially a firing range, is absolutely new to me, and I really hope they get some kind of UXO robots in there before you have guys in heavy machinery moving through. And I'm sure they have, because the State and the municipality would essentially be on the hook, as far as liability.
Edit: I should add, planning board and council meetings with regard to the project are open to members of the public, and in some cases they're streamed online (one of the good things to come out of COVID). If you are interested, it's a great place to see some of the inner workings of all of this. The municipality isn't just stepping aside, they have their advocates, legal, engineering, and the like, and they'll do a thorough vetting. It's rare for affordable projects to get denied, but it does happen, and site safety can be a big factor.
They probably shelled it because they were testing the shells as fired from artillery or whatever.