The factory where the Radium Girls painted glowing watch dials left radioactive waste under hundreds of New Jersey homes, according to EPA. ☢️ Today: U.S. Radium, Orange, NJ. From about 1915 to 1926, U.S. Radium made glowing paint in Orange. Every ton of ore gave only 5 to 7 milligrams of radium; the rest was waste. Young women painted dials, shaping brushes with their lips. In 1927 Grace Fryer and four other former painters sued, and the company said the two-year deadline to sue had run out. In 1928 it settled: $10,000 each and $600 a year. Their lawyer said 13 of the 70 women who worked beside them had already died. EPA suspects some of the plant's tailings were dumped in low, marshy ground nearby, and neighborhoods were built on top. A 1981 helicopter survey found radiation over Montclair, West Orange and Glen Ridge, and in 1983 New Jersey found homes with high radon: 45 homes over the safety guideline, by as much as 75 times. In 1989 EPA planned to dig up only the worst properties; neighbors wanted all of it gone, and in 1990 EPA agreed to dig up everything. Crews hauled out more than 220,000 cubic yards of soil from 340 homes and 16 public properties, and about 100 families moved out temporarily. The three neighborhoods came off the Superfund list in 2009, and the old factory site is now a park. But EPA's review of January 30, 2026 found uranium in groundwater at a well farther from the plant, 45.4 micrograms per liter in May 2025 against a limit of 30, for the first time. Nobody drinks that water, so EPA calls the cleanup protective in the short term and is sampling twice a year. Outlines on screen are traced from EPA figures and approximate. Viewer request: Jeff Rey (@bulk_chapstix). Sources: U.S. EPA (RODs, Five-Year Reviews 2016/2026, Federal Register 2009) · NJ Dept. of Health (1988, 1997) · National Archives · Library of Congress (Chronicling America, HAER) · USGS maps · Rutgers Libraries. Imagery: EOX Sentinel-2 (CC BY 4.0), USGS. Worried about a site near you? Drop a comment and we'll take a look. Find out what's near you → link in bio #CreepyCleanupMonth #RadiumGirls #NewJersey #Superfund #Radon - @pollution.profile