Published in the Asbury Park Press
By DOUG ROBERTSON
CORRESPONDENT
THE AIR FORCE says a modified plan to transport plutonium-contaminated soil from a Plumsted missile site via Conrail tracks will be presented at a public meeting in Ocean County in three weeks, at the earliest. That plan is now being prepared and will reflect input from a Feb. 2 public meeting in Burlington County on the cleanup and concessions from three later meetings with the mayors of Manchester, Lakehurst, Jackson and Plumsted, said Air Force Col. James T. Ryburn, commander of the 305th Support Group at McGuire Air Force Base.
It was always intended to bring the results of the closed meetings with the mayors to the public, Ryburn said.
"We wanted to be able to make some technical decisions so that when we went before the public we would be prepared and the mayors would be prepared. That was always our intent," Ryburn said.
The Department of Defense has come under criticism in Manchester and Jackson for what local officials see as a lack of public involvement in determining how and if the contaminated soil should be removed from the now-decommissioned BOMARC missile shelter in Plumsted and trucked to a railway loading site at Heritage Minerals, Route 70, Manchester.
The proposal calls for transporting the soil from there via train to Newark, then to a private waste-disposal facility in Utah.
Jackson Mayor Geoffrey B. Yalden did not attend the last mayors meeting on Tuesday, after the Jackson Township Committee agreed to boycott all meetings with the Department of Defense regarding BOMARC unless those meetings are open to the public.
At a press conference yesterday at Town Hall, Manchester Mayor Michael Fressola said he left Tuesday's meeting with the impression there would be no public meetings on BOMARC held by federal officials.
Fressola said the township "will do battle" to stop the transportation of any plutonium-laden soil through Manchester.
"With regard to the method of disposal, I am first dismayed as to why this material, in its present location, which is safely encased, needs to be moved at all," Fressola said.
The now-decommissioned air defense base -- at the eastern edge of the Fort Dix military reservation in Plumsted -- was the scene of a June 7, 1961, fire that destroyed one of 56 BOMARC anti-aircraft missiles and melted its nuclear warhead.
Several ounces of plutonium -- now spread out as tiny particles -- remain in concrete around the missile shelter and in sandy soil where the toxic metal was carried by water from firefighters, according to Air Force environmental studies.
"The township will do everything it can to see the material is left where it is. That is the safest possible alternative," Fressola said.
Lakehurst Mayor Steven Childers also supports keeping the material where it is, Fressola said. Childers was invited to speak at yesterday's press conference, but could not attend because of prior commitments.
Manchester officials said they will not rule out taking the matter to court. The township is now investigating how it might legally appeal the state Department of Environmental Protection's 1992 decision approving the removal of the plutonium particles from the site, said Township Administrator Constance Lauffer.
Fressola is hoping federal legislators also will give their support. "I remind you this is a federal project and we have yet to hear from a federal elected official," he said.
Rep. Christopher H. Smith, R-N.J., who first got the Air Force and its contractors to sit down with the four mayors, said he has been in continuous communication with Air Force representatives and has made repeated requests for the Air Force to begin immediate public meetings.
What needs to be raised in public, Smith said, is whether any danger of plutonium particles seeping into the ground water at the BOMARC site outweighs the dangers in transporting the materials by truck and then by train across the county and the country.
"We can't forget that we have a twin threat here," Smith said.
To truck the materials along routes 539 and 70 is not only the cheapest, but the safest, alternative because it approaches the smallest number of residents, Ryburn said.
"I am disappointed we could not reach a consensus, but I understand," Ryburn said. "Whenever you are dealing with environmental business you always face a 'not in my back yard' type of input."
Ryburn said he feels obligated under the law to proceed with preparing for the type of remediation approved by the state DEP in 1992, even if the transportation plan remains in limbo.
The final remediation plan must go back to the DEP for approval. It is still a possibility the contaminated soil will be left contained on site, he said.
Published: April 8, 2000
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