Palmerton Zinc Pile

Overview

The Palmerton Zinc Pile is a former zinc smelting site in Palmerton, Pennsylvania, placed on the National Priorities List in 1983. The New Jersey Zinc Company deposited 33 million tons of slag over roughly 70 years, creating a massive residue pile called the Cinder Bank, stretching 2.5 miles long and over 100 feet high. Smelting operations spread heavy metals across approximately 2,000 acres of the borough and surrounding land. Cleanup began in 1988 and is still underway, with construction estimated to complete between December 2026 and February 2027.

The site is contaminated with arsenic, cadmium, copper, indium, lead, manganese, and zinc. These contaminants appear in community soils, groundwater, surface water, sediment, leachate, and solid waste across Blue Mountain, the Cinder Bank, and surrounding neighborhoods. Zinc, copper, and cadmium have leached into Aquashicola Creek. Fish in the creek have bioaccumulated these metals, and eating them may pose a health threat. Livestock in the area have shown elevated lead and cadmium levels, with documented illness. EPA has also begun investigating PFAS contamination as a separate operable unit, with sampling of private drinking water wells completed in March 2025 and a feasibility study and cleanup decision estimated for late 2027.

Cleanup is organized into five operable units. Blue Mountain was revegetated with over 13,000 trees planted between 2006 and 2013. The Cinder Bank was stabilized with drainage controls, leachate treatment, and revegetation completed by 2002, followed by a groundwater treatment cell installed in 2012. EPA sampled more than 2,400 residential properties and completed soil cleanup on roughly 180 of them by 2004. The community soils unit received a partial deletion from the National Priorities List in 2021. Wetland restoration was completed by 2016. Groundwater migration is currently stabilized. Property owners who declined EPA testing may still have contaminated soil that poses an elevated health risk. EPA's 2022 Five-Year Review found the remedy continues to protect public health, and the next review is scheduled for 2027.

The Lehigh Gap Nature Center purchased over 750 acres near the site in 2002 and established a public wildlife refuge with hiking and birding trails, a visitor center, and ecological research programs. As of December 2024, 163 businesses operating on or near the site employ 1,585 people and generate roughly $258 million in annual sales. Institutional controls remain in place to restrict groundwater use and soil excavation.

Community members with questions can contact the EPA's Community Involvement Coordinator, Eric Pollard, by email or phone. EPA will notify well owners of PFAS sampling results by letter and share redacted community-level results once all owners have been contacted. Updated guidance on residential lead exposure issued in October 2025 is currently being evaluated for how it applies to this site, and EPA will share recommendations with the community as they are developed.