Published in the Home News Tribune
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TRENTON -- Reports to be released next week by the state Department of Health and Senior Services say two toxic waste dumps contaminated drinking water in Dover Township, where there are unusually high rates of childhood cancer.
While the reports do not link the contamination with the cancers, officials said results of the investigation into the Reich Farm Superfund site and the Dover Township Municipal Landfill testify to the need for an epidemiological study of the area.
"We've been pushing to find out whether there is a possibility of a health hazard," said Linda Gillick, executive director of Ocean of Love, a support group for parents of children with cancer. "And we've found out that, yes, there is a health hazard."
Studies released in 1996 found 90 children were diagnosed with cancer in the Ocean County Township from 1979 through 1995.
The health department, which studied the ground water, exposure to contaminants and the health implications, concluded that township residents were exposed to contaminated drinking water as early as the 1970s.
More than 4,500 drums of chemical waste were dumped illegally at the Reich Farm Superfund site, with some of the toxic chemicals seeping into an aquifer that supplies much of the township with water.
Cleanup of the Reich Farm site began in the late 1980s and is continuing.
State and federal agencies also concluded that waste from the township landfill contaminated nearby wells. The wells were capped in 1991.
The state health department and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry are studying possible causes of the increased rates of childhood cancers in the township.
Their report, as well as an analysis of a third waste site at Ciba-Geigy, will be released later this year.
Blumenstock said the department hopes the series of reports will begin to explain why so many Dover Township children contracted cancer.
© copyright 1999 The Associated Press
Source: Asbury Park Press
Published: July 31, 1999
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