Published in the Asbury Park Press
An Asbury Park Press editorial
The state's announcement Wednesday that it has put the skids on a $15 million plan to purchase up to 750 acres of the former Ciba-Geigy Corp. site in Dover Township buys everyone what is needed most to resolve this issue: time.
State and township officials need time to consider whether the site is appropriate for recreation -- or any use beyond don't-touch-it conservation. Ciba-Geigy's dye-manufacturing operations on 200 to 300 of the nearly 1,400-acre area created a Superfund site that will cost some $92 million to clean up.
Meanwhile, those acres that Ciba-Geigy owned but did not use may not be polluted at all. Or, they may be horribly toxic. There surely are better places for children to play than anywhere on this site. But in any event, the extent of all the pollution should be ascertained, and all cleanup completed, before any child goes sliding into home plate on that dirt.
Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell and his boss, Gov. McGreevey, stopped this purchase because it was ill-considered and rushed. Legislation that authorized the money for the land circumvented the usual evaluation process that the state's Green Acres program uses. That's bad public policy made worse by the possibility that land that may be polluted. Without question, it abuts vile contamination.
State and Dover politicians need to rise above the partisanship into which they are sinking to work together on this matter. The fact that Ciba Specialty Corp., the entity that now owns the site, has reversed its previous reluctance to sell any portion of the land should be a red-flag warning. Ciba-Geigy does not have a history of being a good corporate neighbor. If it were, perhaps it would simply donate the land.
Dover's need for recreation fields is real -- the township's population increased by almost one-fifth from 1990 to 2000 -- but desperation should not drive a decision to buy any land, much less a Superfund site. Although it is admirable that state legislators and township committeemen want to provide open spaces for children to play, everyone should take the time to consider that this land could wind up costing a lot more than $15 million.
Published in the Asbury Park Press 7/19/02
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