Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
DOVER TOWNSHIP -- Both the Reich Farm Superfund site and the township's old landfill posed public health hazards in the past because contaminants from the two sites leached into drinking water supplies, state and federal officials said yesterday.
But health assessments of the two sites, which will be released to the public Tuesday, do not attempt to make any link between elevated levels of some childhood cancers here and past contamination of both public and private drinking water supplies.
State and federal health officials stressed yesterday that the landfill no longer poses a health hazard, and that there is no apparent health hazard connected to Reich Farm.
"A public health assessment does not attempt to determine the cause of disease," said James S. Blumenstock, senior assistant commissioner of the state Department of Health and Senior Services. The assessments of the two sites are part of the public health response plan prepared in 1996 by federal and state health officials in response to the childhood cancer statistics.
Blumenstock said the ongoing epidemiological study, which compares families of stricken children with other, healthy ones, will look at any possible links between environmental contamination and cancer.
Health assessments of the Ciba-Geigy Superfund site and Dover's public drinking water supply are due by the end of the year, Blumenstock said. All the health assessments have been prepared by the state and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
Linda L. Gillick, who chairs the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster, said the new assessments show that committee members were right to focus attention on past pollution at Reich Farm, off Route 9, and at the landfill, which is located between Bay Avenue and Church Road.
Committee members are "happy to see that their concerns have been vindicated," Gillick said yesterday. "What we have done here is push to help make this a safer town in which everyone can raise their children."
Dover Committeeman George E. Wittmann Jr. said he was pleased at the finding the landfill no longer poses a threat.
"Was it ever a potential public health problem? The answer to that would have to be yes, and that's consistent with problems associated with landfills throughout the state," Wittmann said. "But currently, they did not find any exposure pathways."
Researchers deemed Reich Farm a public health hazard because chemical contaminants that seeped into ground water polluted both private wells in the Pleasant Plains area and wells in United Water Toms River's parkway well field, off Dugan Lane.
Dr. Jerald A. Fagliano, a state epidemiologist, said researchers found evidence that volatile organic contaminants from Reich Farm polluted private wells as early as 1974. Contaminants were found in public drinking water wells by 1986, he said.
The pollutants seeped into ground water from more than 4,500 drums of Union Carbide Corp.'s chemical waste, which were illegally dumped at Reich Farm by an independent trucker in 1971.
Contaminants found in the wells included trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, Fagliano said. Researchers also believe that styrene acrylonitrile trimer, a chemical compound related to plastics production, also was present in private and public wells by 1986, even though scientists did not find it in parkway wells until 1996.
Researchers in the 1980s did not test for the trimer. Its toxicity is not known, and Union Carbide is paying for an ongoing study of the chemical compound's potential health effects.
Fagliano said Reich Farm was deemed a past public health hazard because of the potentially large number of people exposed to contaminants in drinking water, and previous epidemiological studies of other communities that indicate that exposure to trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene may increase the risk of some childhood cancers and adverse neurological problems.
In 1988, air strippers were placed on two United Water Toms River wells that had been polluted with volatile organic contaminants, and carbon filtration has been installed on four wells in the parkway well field to further remove pollutants. Wells in Pleasant Plains that were polluted were condemned and sealed in 1974 and 1976, with residents connected to the public water supply.
Because of those actions, there no longer are any apparent health hazards associated with Reich Farm, researchers said.
The township's old landfill also posed a public health hazard in the past, after pollutants seeped into at least nine nearby private wells by the late 1980s. Volatile organic contaminants and lead were found in the wells, which were capped and sealed.
Levels of lead found in three of the wells were high enough to be hazardous to a developing fetus or child, Fagliano said. The effects of the volatile organics found in the wells were hard to determine because only one water sample was taken, he said.
Independent trucker Nicholas Fernicola has said he dumped about 2,000 drums of Carbide's chemical waste at the landfill in the early 1970s.
Researchers also looked at an area in the Silverton section where volatile organic chemicals were found in 20 private wells. Fagliano said this area is about one mile east of the landfill, but the source of the pollutants has never been found.
In 16 of the 20 wells tested, levels of volatile organics were high enough to cause public health concern, Fagliano said. Damage to liver and kidneys, and a low increase in cancer risk, can be associated with the levels of chemicals found, researchers said.
The length of time people were exposed to the pollutants is not known, so health effects are difficult to judge, Fagliano said.
Because wells in Silverton and near the landfill were all capped and sealed years ago, the dump is not considered a public health risk at this time. The state Department of Environmental Protection and the township are working together to study the landfill and determine if it is having any impact on ground water in the area today.
Source: Asbury Park Press
Published: July 31, 1999
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