Published in Ocean County Observer
By ANDREW KLAPPHOLZ
Staff Writer
TOMS RIVER -- If Dover Township can close a deal to purchase the contaminated Ciba-Geigy Superfund site, it would have to be done without permission from the state.
State Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell will not grant the township the permits to buy the Ciba-Geigy property, even if the deal can be closed between the two parties, Gov. James E. McGreevey said during a meeting Friday with the Ocean County Newspapers Editorial Board.
At the end of last year, $15 million was appropriated by an outgoing Republican Legislature to buy up to 700 acres of the 1,350-acre property, even though the company never indicated that it wanted to sell. Toxic chemicals were left there during decades of dye and plastics manufacturing, and it may take 30 more years to clean them under the supervision of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Local Republicans have said they want to buy the land to ensure that nothing will be built there in the future. But the governor criticized that rationale, saying the very act of rewarding a polluter with $15 million is simply immoral and fiscally irresponsible, considering the $6 billion of debt that the state is currently in.
"The purchase of that land sends fundamentally the wrong message. It rewards the bad actor," McGreevey said. "The state should not reward Ciba-Geigy with this $15 million appropriation."
He said such a purchase should not even be considered until after the company does it's legally mandated part by cleaning up the contamination over the next several decades. Then, McGreevey said, the state, the town and the company can move forward and explore options.
He added that the cleanup will take so long, that it would not be able to be converted into an open space park for quite some time.
"The children (of today) will literally be having their own children," he said.
Since the appropriation was made by the N.J. Senate and authorized by then-Acting Gov. John Bennett, there is a legal right to spend all $15 million on the Ciba property, McGreevey said.
Therefore, if Dover and Ciba come to an agreement and Campbell refuses to grant permission, the other two bodies can sue the state and the whole matter may end up in the hands of the federal courts and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Published in the Ocean County Observer 07/07/02
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