Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- Ten additional monitoring wells will be drilled at the Dover Township landfill by late spring in an effort to determine the former dump's impact on ground water.
Once the wells are drilled, there will be a total of 16 monitoring sites on and near the landfill property, Township Committeeman George E. Wittmann Jr. said at a meeting of the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster last night.
Six monitoring wells have been in place for several years at the landfill, a 33-acre site between Bay Avenue and Church Road.
Once the new wells are sunk, sampling and laboratory analysis of ground and surface waters and sediments should be completed by September, with a final report filed by the end of the year, Wittmann said.
The sampling will search for a wide range of contaminants, including styrene acrylonitrile trimer, a chemical compound related to plastics production that has been found in United Water Toms River's parkway well field.
The chemical compound is believed to have migrated into the well field from the Reich Farm Superfund site, where drums of Union Carbide Corp.'s chemical waste were dumped in the early 1970s. Trucker Nicholas Fernicola, who hauled the drums to Reich Farm and dumped them, has also said he dumped about 2,000 drums of Union Carbide's waste at the landfill.
In 1997, Dover hired Dan Raviv Associates, Millburn, to investigate contamination at the landfill site. Hazardous substances, including benzene, dichlorobenzene and chlorobenzene, were found in ground water near the landfill property in 1985.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency began investigating the landfill property in 1997 to determine if it should be included on the Superfund list of hazardous waste sites. That investigation was halted in May 1998, when EPA officials recommended that the DEP instead supervise the landfill cleanup.
As part of a lawsuit settlement reached last year, Dover officials agreed to split the cost of the landfill investigation with Union Carbide. So far, the investigation has cost $140,000, of which Union Carbide will pay $70,000.
In work completed last summer, Raviv Associates tested for more than 30 volatile organic chemicals. In nine instances, levels of benzene were found that would have exceeded state drinking water standards if the water was distributed for residential use. The state standard for benzene in drinking water is 1 part per billion.
The amounts of benzene found in the borings ranged from 1.9 parts per billion to 13 parts per billion. The highest reading -- 13 parts per billion -- was found in a boring located at the northern edge of the landfill.
The drinking water standard for chlorobenzene is 50 parts per billion. A boring located at the northeast corner of the landfill, near the south branch of Kettle Creek, had a reading of 97.9 ppb.
Kevin Root, a member of the citizens action committee, asked if a monitoring well will be installed on the northeast side of the Kettle Creek, where contamination levels seem high. Root has repeatedly asked that a well be installed in that area.
But Jan Curtis, DEP project manager for the landfill site, said a well will be drilled on the southwest side of the creek instead because a large area of trees would have to be removed to put a well on the other side.
Root objected, saying he still believes a well should go on the other side of the creek. Committee Chairwoman Linda L. Gillick asked Root and Curtis to discuss the matter before the next committee meeting March 8.
Source: Asbury Park Press
Published: February 23, 1999
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