Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- The public will be able to ask questions about the draft feasibility study for the cleanup of the former Ciba-Geigy Corp. site at two public-availability sessions hosted by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
The sessions will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 6 to 8 p.m. today in the Rosendahl Room at the Quality Inn, Route 37 at Mule Road.
EPA and Ciba officials will be available to answer questions on the draft study, which was released in early September.
The study lists several alternatives being considered to clean up contamination at 21 potential sources of contamination at the Route 37 site, now owned by Ciba Specialty Chemicals.
Those alternatives include doing nothing and allowing natural processes to gradually reduce the contaminant levels to excavating all contaminated material and shipping it off-site for treatment and disposal, at an estimated cost of $201 million.
Thermal desorption, which involves heating the soil from 500 to 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit to vaporize and remove contaminants, could be the most technically feasible of the options being considered, the study states.
The sandy soils and the contaminants found at the site are well-suited for thermal treatment, according to the study. Thermal desorption has an estimated $96.9 million price tag.
EPA officials have repeatedly stressed that they have not made a decision about which cleanup methods will be used at the site. Officials have also said that several treatment options will probably be used at the Ciba site.
The EPA will incorporate public comments into the final feasibility study, which will be released along with a recommended cleanup plan.
The draft feasibility study is available for review at the Ocean County Library, 101 Washington St., (732) 349-6200, and the Ocean County Planning Department, 129 Hooper Ave., (732) 929-2054.
The document is also available on the EPA's Web site: www.epa.gov/region02/superfnd/site_sum/cibLine is overdrawn a/cibafs.htm.
For more information, contact Natalie Loney at EPA, (212) 637-3639, or (800) 346-5009.
Published on November 10, 1999
Source: Asbury Park Press
Published: November 16, 1999
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