Superfund / NPL site · EPA Superfund SEMS through latest publishNPL Final

Hercules, Inc. (Gibbstown Plant)

This site is currently on the EPA Superfund National Priorities List and remains under federal cleanup oversight. Most-cited contaminant of concern: Benzene.

50 North Market St, Gibbstown, New Jersey · ZIP 08027 · EPA ID NJD002349058

CLEANUP TIMELINE

Listing-date and cleanup-phase enrichment from EPA's per-site SEMS profile is queued for a follow-up ingest pass. Until then, this section will populate from EPA's published timeline data.

Anomaly engine

Notable Signals

No notable signals at this Superfund site for the current ingest. Cleanup-phase and SEMS-action flags are deferred to a follow-up engineering pass.

Contaminants of concern · per EPA SEMS

What's In This Site

Each row pairs a contaminant with the medium it was found in (the exposure pathway). Hover any named contaminant for an agency-cited health-risk summary. Cited count = number of SEMS decision records (RODs and related) that name the pair.

ContaminantPathwayCited
BenzeneHealth riskIARC Group 1 carcinogen. Long-term inhalation causes leukemia and bone-marrow disorders. (IARC, EPA)Groundwater2
CumeneGroundwater2
CumeneSediment2
LeadHealth riskNeurotoxin. Even low childhood exposure impairs cognitive development; chronic adult exposure damages kidneys and the cardiovascular system. (EPA, ATSDR)Groundwater2
PhenolHealth riskCorrosive on contact; absorbed through skin; high exposure damages kidneys, liver, and the central nervous system. (NIOSH)Sediment2
TolueneHealth riskCentral-nervous-system depressant. Chronic high exposure causes hearing loss and developmental effects. (EPA, ATSDR)Groundwater2
1-PhenylethanoneGroundwater1
1-PhenylethanoneSediment1
1-PhenylethanoneSoil1
2,4-DinitrotolueneGroundwater1
2,6-DinitrotolueneGroundwater1
ArsenicHealth riskIARC Group 1 carcinogen via inhalation and ingestion. EPA MCL 10 µg/L; chronic exposure causes skin, lung, bladder cancer and cardiovascular disease. (IARC, EPA, ATSDR)Groundwater1
BenzeneHealth riskIARC Group 1 carcinogen. Long-term inhalation causes leukemia and bone-marrow disorders. (IARC, EPA)Other1
BenzeneHealth riskIARC Group 1 carcinogen. Long-term inhalation causes leukemia and bone-marrow disorders. (IARC, EPA)Sediment1
BenzeneHealth riskIARC Group 1 carcinogen. Long-term inhalation causes leukemia and bone-marrow disorders. (IARC, EPA)Soil1
ChromiumHealth riskHexavalent chromium (Cr-VI) is an IARC Group 1 carcinogen via inhalation, causing lung cancer; trivalent chromium is far less toxic. (IARC, EPA)Sediment1
CumeneSoil1
DiphenylamineSediment1
EthylbenzeneHealth riskIARC Group 2B possible carcinogen; eye and respiratory irritant. (IARC)Groundwater1
EthylbenzeneHealth riskIARC Group 2B possible carcinogen; eye and respiratory irritant. (IARC)Sediment1
EthylbenzeneHealth riskIARC Group 2B possible carcinogen; eye and respiratory irritant. (IARC)Soil1
LeadHealth riskNeurotoxin. Even low childhood exposure impairs cognitive development; chronic adult exposure damages kidneys and the cardiovascular system. (EPA, ATSDR)Sediment1
LeadHealth riskNeurotoxin. Even low childhood exposure impairs cognitive development; chronic adult exposure damages kidneys and the cardiovascular system. (EPA, ATSDR)Soil1
LeadHealth riskNeurotoxin. Even low childhood exposure impairs cognitive development; chronic adult exposure damages kidneys and the cardiovascular system. (EPA, ATSDR)Surface Water1
MercuryHealth riskNeurotoxin. Methylmercury bioaccumulates up the food chain and damages the developing nervous system. (EPA, ATSDR)Sediment1
NickelHealth riskNickel compounds are IARC Group 1 carcinogens; inhalation exposure raises lung and nasal cancer risk. (IARC)Groundwater1
NickelHealth riskNickel compounds are IARC Group 1 carcinogens; inhalation exposure raises lung and nasal cancer risk. (IARC)Sediment1
PhenolHealth riskCorrosive on contact; absorbed through skin; high exposure damages kidneys, liver, and the central nervous system. (NIOSH)Groundwater1
PhenolHealth riskCorrosive on contact; absorbed through skin; high exposure damages kidneys, liver, and the central nervous system. (NIOSH)Soil1
SilverHealth riskChronic exposure can cause argyria — irreversible blue-grey skin discoloration. Generally low systemic toxicity. (ATSDR)Sediment1

Showing the top 30 pairs by SEMS citation count. 5 additional (contaminant, pathway) pairs are recorded for this site.

Drinking-water linkage · SDWIS

Groundwater Systems Serving Communities Within 3 Miles

The 2 systems below draw on groundwater (or mixed sources) and serve communities whose centroid sits within 3 miles of this site. Distance is to the served-city centroid — SDWIS does not expose individual wellhead locations, so this is a proximity screen, not a wellhead-impact assessment.

Water systemServesDistancePopulation servedSourceStatus
Greenwich Twp W Dept MunicipalGibbstown1.0 mi4,921GROUNDWATERUNRESOLVED
Paulsboro Water Department MunicipalPaulsboro2.0 mi6,097GROUNDWATERUNRESOLVED

Methodology: served-city centroid (TIGER 2020) is used as the PWS coordinate. Source-water classification from SDWIS primary_source_code; only groundwater and mixed-source systems are queried. Click any system above for its full SDWIS profile.

Equity context · ACS 2018-2022 block-group demographics

Who Lives Near This Site

Gloucester County, New Jersey (no Census block groups within 1 mile and no host city — falling back to containing county): a population of 302,621. Why we surface this →

POPULATION SHARE
7.5%

Low-income

POPULATION SHARE
23.7%

People of color

POPULATION SHARE
6.3%

Under age 5

POPULATION SHARE
16.2%

Over age 64

Source: Census ACS 2018-2022 (5-year) + USEPA-clone EJ blockgroup stats (raw indicators + EJ disparity mirror). NPL site proximity contributes to the national EJ pattern; indicator-level percentile and disparity scores are surfaced on the county page and the state page.

Source. EPA Superfund Enterprise Management System (SEMS) · retrieved 2026-05-07. SEMS is a federal public-domain dataset under 17 USC §105.

What this is not. We report EPA's published Superfund record — site listing, status, and contaminants of concern as named in EPA's decision documents. We do not perform site visits, independent air or water sampling, or current-state health-risk assessment. NPL listing reflects EPA's Hazard Ranking Score at a point in time; it does not by itself describe present-day exposure.