The former Maxwell House site is located in the City of Hoboken, New Jersey and is a 24 acre parcel of waterfront property historically developed as a manufacturing site. From 1938 to 1988, General Foods Corporation used the property for processing, manufacturing, warehousing, offices and data processing. The primary processes during active operations at the facility were the roasting, grinding, and packaging of coffee products under the trade name Maxwell House. Maxwell House operated a solvent recovery system at the site prior to 1975 to recover trichloroethene (TCE) and methylene chloride (MC) used during the decaffeination process. Decaffeination was primarily conducted within Building No. 3. Various studies were prepared to demonstrate that natural attenuation of the TCE occupying the site. The waterfront was dominated by building 11, pier 10 peninsula, and the pier 9 silo building, which were used for the receipt of raw materials (coffee beans) via Hudson River barges and also for shipping finished goods.

The site was designated as a national historical site for the 1930’s German Brau House architectural factory buildings and also for the following additional historical elements: the New York Yacht Club Boathouse and a playing field on the exact site of the first baseball game played in America (called Elysian Fields) were important components of the site plan. This award winning project, initially valued at $500M, is one of the largest Brownfield redevelopment projects in New Jersey. The site is currently being redeveloped consistent with the Hoboken Land Use Regulations for the I-1W Zoning district (Waterfront Mixed Use).

The waterfront areas were redeveloped as waterfront park areas, which maximized the public access to the waterfront using a key feature, the Hudson River Walkway. E2PM performed extensive soil remediation to various soil hot spot areas. E2PM utilized engineering controls to cap the entire site, in combination with Classification Exception Areas for groundwater. There were 58 areas identified in the remediation documentation encompassing 52 Hot Spots, 3 existing Declaration of Environmental Restriction Areas, and 3 TCE areas identified in the Remediation Documents. In addition to the 58 areas, 5 previously unknown areas were identified and remediated during field activities. For the purpose of the Remedial Action Report, Hot Spots are defined as areas where previous environmental samples exceeded one or more NJDEP soil clean up criteria. Over 70,000 tons of TCE impacted soils were remediated from the site.