Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- An air-monitoring plan should help protect the health of workers and nearby residents during the cleanup at the former Ciba-Geigy Corp. Superfund site, federal and state health officials said last night.
"The plan is protective of public health, provided some additional measures are taken," said Greg V. Ulirsch, a technical project officer with the state Department of Health and Senior Services.
The health department and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry reviewed the air-monitoring plan that will be in place when work begins to clean up 10 pollution source areas at the Ciba site, now owned by Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corp.
The two agencies were asked to review the air-monitoring plan, which will track levels of airborne contaminants during the six-year cleanup operation at the site.
The request to review the plan came from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which is overseeing all cleanup operations at the site, and the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster, which met here last night.
Ulirsch said the final report makes several suggestions to improve safety and protection of the public during the cleanup, including conducting a full chemical analysis of all airborne particles collected, increasing security on the Ciba site once cleanup work begins, and re-evaluating so-called action levels for air monitoring to be done at the site perimeter, once work starts, to make sure they have been set at conservative-enough levels.
The EPA has agreed to implement all the suggestions made in the health consultation, Ulirsch said.
The cleanup operation, expected to start in the late fall or early winter, includes excavating 145,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil from the pollution source areas on the property, which is off Route 37 west, near Oak Ridge Parkway.
Bioremediation, which involves using bacteria that live on the land to break down and consume hazardous waste, will be the main cleanup method. About 32,000 drums of buried waste will be removed from the site for treatment and disposal.
Six air-monitoring stations have been set up at the site's perimeter. Additional air monitors will be set up where excavation is taking place and in the "near field" areas, about 300 feet from excavation sites.
Published in the Asbury Park Press 4/10/03
|
