Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- A toxicologist representing the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster will meet in February with a core group of scientists working on plans for testing a chemical compound found in three United Water Toms River wells.
Dr. William Lijinsky was hired recently by the citizens committee to make sure Dover Township residents are represented on the scientific panel that will design protocols for testing the toxicity of styrene acrylonitrile trimer.
"Our toxicologist is representing the 83,000 citizens of this town," said Linda L. Gillick, who chairs the citizens committee. The committee chose Lijinsky after reviewing the resumes of several prominent toxicologists, she said.
The citizens committee had requested input into the process, which is being carried out by Union Carbide Corp. with supervision from federal and state officials.
No toxicity tests have ever been performed on the trimer.
Traces of the trimer, a waste product produced during plastics production, was found in two United Water Toms River wells in November 1996. Water from those wells has been used only sporadically in the drinking water system since the trimer was discovered.
A carbon filtration system removes all traces of the chemical compound from the well water, and the water is then discharged onto the ground. The trimer is found in a plume of ground water contamination that has seeped into the well field from the Reich Farm Superfund site, located a mile to the north.
Carbide has taken responsibility for contamination at Reich Farm, where barrels of chemical waste from the company's Bound Brook plant were dumped by an independent trucker in the early 1970s.
Traces of the compound were found briefly in another well this summer, and state and federal environmental officials are working with Carbide to install carbon filtration on that well, too.
All three wells are located in United's parkway well field, off Dugan Lane.
Lijinsky will be paid using funds set aside by the county Board of Freeholders. In February, Lijinsky will meet first to give his advice and input to a core group of scientists that does not include Carbide representatives, Gillick said. Carbide's representatives will then meet with the core group and give their input.
"We have recommended someone whose credibility cannot be questioned," Gillick said of Lijinsky.
Source: Asbury Park Press
Published: December 29, 1998
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