DuPont looks to give Sayreville 120 acres
Land near nature preserve would be kept mostly as open space
BY JOHN DUNPHY
Staff Writer

SAYREVILLE — This land is your land.

That’s what local officials are hoping will be the case with land owned by DuPont, which has offered nearly 120 acres to the borough for use as open space.

George Osei, regulatory affairs manager for DuPont’s Parlin plant, said the company has been in talks with Sayreville officials for several years regarding the donation.

“We have land here we don’t use,” he said. “We’ve never used it for manufacturing.”

The land includes two tracts of 78 and 42 acres, the latter of which borders the Julian L. Capik Nature Preserve on Bordentown Avenue.

Councilman Stanley Drwal, who along with his Sayreville Conservation Corps volunteers and student employees has been working to improve the preserve, said the donated land would allow the nature preserve to grow beyond 500 acres.

“It’s a nice piece of property,” Drwal said. “It will be one of the nicer sections of the preserve.”

Besides maintaining most of the land as open space, Drwal said there is some interest in using a small piece for purposes such as a public swimming pool, though nothing has been planned.

“This donation takes a large piece of property out of the realm of development for housing,” Drwal said. It also means a large portion of the borough where major roads such as Bordentown Avenue, Jernee Mill Road and Cheesequake Road are located will be devoted to uses including the nature preserve, the borough soccer complex and the well fields.

“The only piece of land left in that section is a small piece of property owned by Hercules,” he added.

Mayor Kennedy O’Brien said the donation would be generous on DuPont’s part.

“DuPont has been very good to the people of Sayreville, both in employment and corporate generosity,” he said. “They’re just following what they’ve been doing for the last 100 years.”

But before anyone can celebrate, several steps still need to be taken, Osei said. The Borough Council voted Monday night to have an appraisal performed on the parcels. Once the appraisal is complete, the data will be forwarded to the proper authorities within DuPont, who can then approve the donation.

Groundwater remediation is conducted at the DuPont plant, with its byproduct naturally moving in a south to southeasterly direction 100 feet under the ground, Osei said. As the two pieces of land are located south and east of the plant, an environmental assessment must also be conducted on the land, though Osei noted such a process has been done before with no problems.

He said the donation is being offered on the basis that the borough does not use it for any major development.

“We’d like it to remain as a nature preserve,” Osei said. “I’ve heard of possible ballfield expansion for some parts, maybe some nature trails and benches. These ideas have been brought up.”

“The mayor and council have good ideas,” he added.

Officials anticipate final approval within the next two months.

“On behalf of the people of Sayreville, I shall gratefully accept it,” O’Brien said. “It’s about another 120 acres for our open-space inventory.”