Published in the Ocean County Observer 6/18/00
By MARGARET F. BONAFIDE
STAFF WRITER
TOMS RIVER -- Residents are breathing a sigh of relief over the choice made by the Environmental Protection Agency which announced a natural method of ridding the former Ciba-Geigy site of contaminants and removing the buried drums, some of which contain toxic waste.
Carol Benson, a Toms River resident, said she has not attended all the meetings because her family has been dealing with the illness and recent death of her grandson, Justin, who died of brain cancer here.
But, Benson said she was glad that she attended this one.
"My husband and I were concerned they were going to go with the burning" choice for ridding the property of the contaminants that are in some of the 35,000 drums buried on the property and the 150,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil.
The EPA said they chose the $92 million choice of bioremediation option, which will take eight years to eliminate the source of pollutants that are feeding an underground plume at the Cohansey Aquafir.
Bioremediation is a biological treatment that would use microorganisms to destroy the toxins. In bioremediation the material is left in the ground and treated on site. This will be used in areas where the perched water management is not possible. Excavation of the 150,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil used with air monitoring for safety.
Currently the EPA estimates that there are 35,000 drums drums buried on the property of the former dye production company, which began operations in 1952.
It could be several years before the red tape is cleared up and the progress of cleaning up the contaminants in drums and soil can begin. Peter Hibbard of the Ocean County Citizens for Clean Water said the option of burning the material is more efficient, though it leaves the possibility of human error. "I would tend to agree with the thermal treatment if we could be assured the operator would be as efficient as the process," he said.
Several groups of community organizations which work to improve the environment in Dover Township work together to get the federal government to listen and with numbers comes power, Hibbard said.
"When something comes, up we sit down and talk about what is going to be done with it and as a result the power is greater when we approach the federal government," he said.
Ciba-Geigy and the EPA "is proceeding far better than we expected," he said.
Plans will be revisited to keep the students and staff of the West Dover Elementary School free of any possible danger from emissions, Hibbard said.
Published on June 18, 2000
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