Published in the Ocean County Observer
Editorial
It it time for Dover Township officials to end their attempt to acquire part of the Ciba-Geigy Superfund site.
The plan, the work of a powerful political minority, has been flawed from the start. They are the ones, not the general public, who created the mandate that won last-minute legislative approval of $15 million for the Superfund park.
But Ciba told Dover Township officials recently it has no interest in selling any of the 1,350-acre property in West Dover where dyes and plastics additives once were made.
That manufacturing left behind a legacy of illegally dumped and buried toxic wastes that will take three decades to clean up. To its credit, Ciba is footing the entire tab.
On Friday Gov. James E. McGreevey said his administration will do all it can to block the Ciba purchase, because of environmental factors and because funding the property with taxpayers' money would be rewarding the polluters. Which means the foolhardy will have to go to court, where the outcome is uncertain, before the purchase can take place. Before that, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would have to decertify part of the site, eliminating it as a Superfund site, if it is to be acquired in the name of open space.
We can picture experts from the state Department of Environmental Protection opposing that. Their stand would be consistent with an early DEP ruling which denied Ciba-Geigy the right to build a pharmaceutical plant on part of the site because it was too contaminated.
The legal and regulatory quagmire would consume money and effort that should be directed at other, meaningful open space acquisitions in Dover Township.
When will that effort spread to North Dover, where the most growth in the community is now taking place?
Can the Home Depot site be acquired? How much would it cost? Can a deal be cut with McGreevey to support the use of some of the Ciba funds for other Dover projects? That is an option Dover officials should be actively pursuing, with the help of the lawmakers who so adroitly maneuvered the legislation to approval earlier this year.
If there is any doubt about the folly of acquiring a Superfund site, we suggest the proponents of such a plan pack a picnic lunch and take it to Carteret Park in Glen Ridge.
Unfortunately they will not be able to eat it in the park, which once was a Superfund site. That's because the site, once declared clean, is again closed to the public - because another $500,000 must be spent to clean up the clean park. A closer look revealed it is still contaminated with the radioactive leavings of a watch-dial manufacturer.
There is much to be done in Dover Township to craft a plan to preserve land that will add to the quality of life in neighborhoods for generations to come. There is no pressure to develop the Ciba site, no plan or approval for its use. It is a mindless distraction from the work that needs to be done. The focus of the committee should be on keeping promises made to Ocean County to help preserve land off Indian Head Road and Church Road, and to find unpolluted places ripe for development - before it is too late and all that remains is Ciba's leftovers.
Developers are at work every day implementing their view of the future of the township. Preservationists need to work that hard as well. There is no time to waste on the Ciba-Geigy folly.
Published on July 9, 2002
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