Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- The air monitoring plan for cleanup work at the former Ciba-Geigy Corp. Superfund site in will be discussed by federal officials at a meeting tonight of the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster, committee Chairwoman Linda L. Gillick said.
The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at town hall, 33 Washington St.
Gillick said the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry will discuss the air monitoring plan, which is aimed at keeping both site workers and the public safe after cleanup work gets under way at the Ciba site.
Bioremediation, which uses bacteria existing at a site to consume contaminants, will be the primary method for cleaning up 10 pollution source areas on the Ciba property. About 175,000 cubic yards of soil are to be removed, treated and then returned to the property in a process that could take about six years to complete.
While the work is ongoing, air monitoring will be done at the site of the work and also at the perimeter of Ciba's property. The EPA, which will oversee the cleanup work, has established air monitoring "action levels," and will stop work if the amount of contaminants in the air reaches those levels.
Construction of buildings to house the treatment process at Ciba is expected to begin this spring, with actual excavation starting late in the year, officials have said.
Also tonight, there will be an update on a recent meeting held in Washington, D.C., to discuss progress in toxicity testing of styrene acrylonitrile trimer, a substance related to plastics production that has been found in several United Water Toms River wells.
The toxicity of the trimer is not known and initial testing has been inconclusive. Gillick said officials will discuss the progress of a study that will expose pregnant rats to the trimer to help determine if it is a potential human carcinogen.
"They'll talk about what they've found so far and where they are going next," Gillick said of the trimer toxicity study, which is expected to take several years to complete.
Published in the Asbury Park Press 4/09/03
|
