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Dover Township Municipal Landfill & Silverton Private Well Contamination Investigation
Toms River, New Jersey
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Purpose and Health Issues
As part of the Public Health Response Plan (PBRP) developed by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (NJDHSS) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
for the Dover Township Childhood Cancer Investigation (NJDHSS/ATDSR, 1996), this Public Health Assessment will evaluate the public health significance of human exposure associated with the Dover
Township Municipal Landfill (DTML and the Silverton Private Well Contamination Investigation.
Background
Demography and Land Use
The Dover Township Municipal Landfill (DTML) site is located in Dover Township, Ocean County, New Jersey. The site is bounded by the Garden State Parkway and North Bay Avenue on the west and
Silverton Road and Church Road on the north and south, respectively (Figure 1; see Appendix for figures). The DTML site occupies an area of approximately 91 acres, with the landfill itself
occupying approximately 22 acres (Block 231, Lots 7 and 10). The environs of the site are primarily residential in nature with light commercial use, with the Ocean County College located 1 mile to the southeast.
The DTML site is mounded to approximately 100 feet above the level of the Garden State Parkway with wooded to the north and west. There are one and two story structures immediately adjacent to the site, occupied
by the Township of Dover, which maintains a public works yard and recycling facility on the property. The DTML lies approximately 8 miles west of the Atlantic Ocean, with the maximum elevation of the site
approximately 150 feet above mean sea level. The site exhibits a slope toward the southeast. The DTML is located within the outcrop area of the Cohansey Formation, with some thin layers of younger formations capping the Cohansey.
The soils at the site consist of quartz gravel and sand, which exhibit a relatively high percolation rate.
The Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer underlies the DTML site, and is characterized by sand with occasional clay and gravel lenses. It has a depth of approximately 235 feet. The water table at the site is about 20 feet below the normal grade.
Groundwater in the area of the DTML site flows generally eastward toward Silverton, with potential contaminants (for example, benzene) having been estimated by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to travel at up to
approximately 1.6 feet/day (Montgomery, 1990). The Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer is extensively utilized as a potable water source in Dover Township by both private and community supply wells. Ground water in the area of the DTML site is acidic
(median pH = 5.6), and exhibits a relatively high concentration of dissolved iron and manganese.
Population demographics based upon the 1990 census have been prepared by the ATSDR using area-proportion spatial analysis, and are presented in Figure 2. Within a one-mile radius of the DTML site, there is a population of approximately 6,182
persons, and 3,547 housing units/residences.
Site History
The DTML operated from 1956 through 1981, and received approximately 960 tons of waste per week at its peak of operations. In May 1970, the New Jersey Solid Waste Management Act (N.J. S.A.13:1El et seq.) gave the NJDEP regulatory oversight of the DTML.
The DTML was then certified by the NJDEP to accept household, commercial, industrial, and other waste classes, and received wastes from numerous sources.
In early 1971, the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) entered into a contract with an independent waste removal contractor to remove 55 gallon drums of chemical wastes from the UCC Bound Brook facility and transport them to the DTML for disposal
(Ghassemi, 1976). Between March and December 1971, 5,000 to 6,000 UCC drums labeled as containing organic wash solvents, still bottoms, and residues from the manufacture of plastics and resins were removed by the contractor for disposal.
Of the 5,000 to 6,000 drums removed by the waste removal contractor, approximately 4,500 were reportedly accounted for on the nearby Reich Farm property (see Figure 3). The remainder of the drums removed from the UCC facility were assumed by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to have been deposited in the DTML. On April 1, 197 1, a UCC representative verified the initial deposition of drums into the DTML (Ghassemi, 1976).
In 1978, as part of a continuation and expansion plan for the DTML, the NJDEP authorized the construction of six monitoring wells and methane gas vents, and the institution of operational controls and closure methods. At that time, waste classes
permitted to be deposited into the DTML were restricted to household, commercial, institutional, and vegetation debris.
In 1982, lead, arsenic, and VOCs were detected in groundwater from on-site monitoring wells (Przywara, 1982). The Township of Dover retained the BCM Corporation in early 1988 to conduct a hydrogeologic investigation of the DTML under the supervision
of the NJDEP (BCM, 1987; BCM, 1988). Sampling of the DTML monitoring wells has been conducted on a quarterly basis (Shannon, 1991).
The current status of the UCC drums which were deposited into the DTML is not known.
Health Assessment Activity Summary
As part of the activities performed for this Public Health Assessment, the ATSDR and the NJDHSS have reviewed private well data associated with the NJDEP's DTML/Silverton Road Groundwater Investigation (1987 to 1989), which examined wells close to the
DTML, and the Silverton Private Well Contamination Investigation (1982), which examined wells to the east and down gradient of the DTML. In addition, in support of this Public Health Assessment, the ATSDR and the NJDHSS have conducted an exposure
investigation of potentially affected private potable wells in these areas to determine current groundwater quality. Figure 4 presents the approximate locations of private wells associated with the DTML (and the RF site) sampled by the NJDHSS in 1997
during the groundwater phase of the exposure investigation.
There have been no previous activities by the NJDHSS or the ATSDR at the DTML site or associated study areas prior to the activities conducted in preparation of this Public Health Assessment.
Site Visits
Staff of the NJDHSS and the ATSDR performed multiple visits of the DTML, and other locations within Dover Township during 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999.
Community Concerns
Members of the community have expressed to the NJDHSS and the ATSDR a high degree of concern regarding the quality of private wells directly adjacent to the DTML (DTML/Silverton Road Groundwater Investigation) and private wells located in the Silverton section of the Township
(Silverton Private Well Contamination Investigation). Although the NJDEP has not considered the private well contamination in the Silverton section of Dover Township to be related to the DTML, the concerns of the community over the possibility of this relationship,
together with the public health significance of the contaminant levels, have led to this public health evaluation of the data.
Residents of Dover Township have expressed concern about the incidence of childhood cancer in the community. In the summer of 1995, the ATSDR asked the NJDHSS to perform an analysis of childhood cancer statistics for the township. The NJDHSS found an
elevated occurrence of certain childhood cancers, prompting the ATSDR and the NJDHSS to formulate a multi-activity Public Health Response Plan (PR") in June 1996 (NJDHSS/ATSDR, 1996). The PBRP included an updating and reevaluation of
information on childhood cancer incidence and assessments of environmental issues of concern to the community. Originally included in the PHRP were Public Health Assessments of the RF site and the Ciba-Geigy Corporation site; subsequently,
the NJDHSS and the ATDSR added a third Public Health Assessment for the DTML site. The PHRP also included a Public Health Consultation, performed jointly with the NJDEP, that evaluates extensive water quality testing data from the community water system in Dover Township.
Other activities of the PIW are the development of a community and health professionals education program (see "Public Health Action Plan" section), compilation of a compendium of environmental contamination sources in Dover Township, and inclusion of New Jersey
in a multi-state study of brain cancer incidence in proximity to National Priorities List sites.
Since March 1996, the NJDHSS and the ATSDR have participated in monthly public meetings of the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster (CACCCC) in order to discuss progress toward implementation of the PBRP, cancer incidence, environmental sampling data,
and community concerns related to the on-going investigation.
Statement of Issues
This Public Health Assessment will evaluate the public health significance of past private well contamination associated with the DTML, as documented during the DTML/Silverton Road Groundwater Investigation. It will also evaluate the results of the Silverton
Well Private Well Investigation and current, private well data from the area collected by the NJDHSS and the ATSDR in 1997.
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