Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
The tourists who shivered in a cold wind yesterday morning eagerly climbed aboard the big bus after had it pulled into the parking lot on the Ciba Specialty Chemicals property.
Their destination was not Atlantic City or Ellis Island, but a Bergen County Superfund site. It offered a glimpse at a type of waste treatment that could be used to clean up more than 20 pollution sources at the sprawling Dover Township site formerly owned by Ciba-Geigy Corp.
Yesterday's bus trip, organized by officials from Ciba and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, included box lunches and tough questions. More than 20 residents gave up their Saturday to view a thermal desorption unit at the former Industrial Latex site in Wallington, and a bioremediation pilot project at the Ciba site.
Thermal desorption involves heating soils to vaporize and remove contaminants; bioremediation uses microbes to break down pollutants. Both alternatives are being considered for the massive cleanup operation at Ciba, the former dye-manufacturing plant that has been on the Superfund list for almost 20 years.
One disappointment for residents yesterday was the fact the thermal desorption unit was not operating because the cold weather had frozen the unit's supply of excavated dirt and led operators to shut the unit down.
Despite that, Dover resident Steve Nieves said during the bus ride back to the township that he was "pleased with this visit. That was interesting and very educational."
But other residents had a more skeptical view.
"You really didn't learn anything here," said Bruce Anderson, who is a member of the group Toxic Environment Affects Children's Health, an organization of about 60 families of children with cancer. "They're just pushing thermal desorption."
Anderson, whose 18-year-old son, Michael, is in remission after battling leukemia, said he remains opposed to thermal treatment as a method for cleaning up pollution at Ciba.
Anderson's opposition to thermal treatment has been echoed by other residents. But EPA officials yesterday said the thermal desorption unit at Industrial Latex has performed well in cleaning up a PCB-contaminated site located in the midst of a densely populated residential area.
"People are apprehensive about thermal treatment units," said John Frisco, a proponent of thermal treatment who has managed the Superfund program, primarily in New Jersey, for about 10 years. "They are concerned that we can do this safely," but Frisco assured that the process was safe.
Thermal desorption and bioremediation are two of the seven alternatives being considered by the EPA for cleaning up the Ciba site. The EPA is scheduled to release a proposed cleanup plan sometime this spring, and agency officials hope to finalize the cleanup method by fall, following a public comment period.
One of the main goals of the cleanup process is to reduce and remove the sources of a plume of groundwater contamination that seeps off the Ciba property. A groundwater treatment system removes and treats about 2.7 million gallons of contaminated water daily.
Frisco said the thermal desorption unit at the Wallington site, which has been operating since April, is located closer to homes and a school than any other site he has supervised.
About 10,000 people live within half a mile of the site, where chemical adhesives and natural and synthetic rubber compounds were manufactured from 1951 until 1983. An elementary school is directly across from the property.
Allen Beaudin, a thermal engineer for Environmental Chemical Corp., the California-based contractor that built and runs the thermal unit, said the unit heats soil to a temperature of 900 degrees Fahrenheit to vaporize PCBs. The PCBs are concentrated in a cake-like waste that is taken to a New York landfill.
Some residents wondered if the thermal desorption unit would work as well on the different types of contaminants found at Ciba, which include volatile organic chemicals and heavy metals.
Romona Pezzella, EPA's remedial project manager for the Ciba site, said a thermal unit can be used to remove many of the pollutants found at Ciba. The EPA has estimated that about one-third of the 35,000 waste-filled drums at the Ciba site could be treated using a thermal unit, while the other two-thirds would have to be sent off-site for treatment.
About one-quarter of the drum contents would be treated by bioremediation, EPA officials have said. Yesterday, Ciba officials said a pilot bioremediation project has removed 80 to 85 percent of pollutants from soil since the project began in early November.
Microbes that occur naturally in soil are fed oxygen, and straw is mixed with the soil, which is turned regularly to stimulate the process. Residents who attended the tour watched a backhoe turn one of the dark-brown soil piles.
Ciba officials estimate it would take six to eight years to remove pollutants at the site using bioremediation, compared to about two years for thermal desorption.
Published: January 23, 2000
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