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WILLIAMS, CUKER & BEREFZOFSKY
Attorneys At Law
April 28, 1999
Peter Verniero
Attorney General State of New Jersey
Department of Law and Public Safety
Hughes Justice Complex
25 West Market Street
P.O. Box 080
Trenton, NJ 08625
Re: Toms River Childhood Cancer Cluster
Dear Mr. Verniero:
Since you have taken a leadership position in assuring statewide compliance with the Right to Know Act, I wanted to alert you to your own department's actions, and that of the New Jersey Department of Health, as they affect the public's right to know about the source of childhood cancer in Toms River.
Our office represents approximately 60 families in the Dover Township area whose children are afflicted with cancer. As part of the investigation of childhood cancer, the Department of Health sampled private wells in the Toms River area. These well results contained many interesting findings, including findings of what appeared to be dye related compounds in those wells. This is of great interest because Ciba Geigy, one of the sites suspected to be a potential source of the cancer, was a large dye manufacturing facility. Evidence that dyes from Ciba Geigy have been found in private wells could tell us a great deal more about the pathway of pollution from industrial polluters to the public wellfield. At the same meeting, the Department of Health stated that the private wells showed "no evidence of contamination associated with the (Ciba) site." We believe this statement was inaccurate for reasons set forth in my October 8, 1998 to George Schlosser of your office, a copy of which is enclosed. We think
there was significant evidence of dye contamination in these wells, and we simply asked for the general location of these wells so we could evaluate the likelihood that these dyes came from Ciba Geigy or some other source.
My letter to Mr. Schlosser of October 8 has been followed up on February 12, March 3, March 25 and April 23, 1999. The DOH's refusal to provide general location information about these sampling sites is astonishing given the intense public
interest in determining the source of cancer in Toms River. The people who own these private wells have apparently been told that the well water is safe to drink, even though dye compounds have been found in the water. Regardless of whether a maximum contaminant level for dye compounds has been established for drinking water, it is certainly inappropriate to assure these people that the water is "safe to drink" when the safety of that water has not really been evaluated.
Over six months has elapsed since I made these requests and the silence has been deafening. I would hope that your office would take some action so the people of Toms River can get the best available information about the contamination of drinking water in the area.
Very truly yours,
MARK R. CUKER
MRC/psf
Enclosure
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