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Ciba, state to discuss settlement
The DEP is pursuing compensation for the years Dover Township residents have been barred from accessing groundwater in the region.
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Published in the Ocean County Observer
By JOHN HAZARD
Staff Writer
TOMS RIVER -- Ciba Specialty Corp. has agreed to sit down with the state Department of Environmental Protection to discuss a settlement for damages to natural resources committed by the company at the Ciba-Geigy property in Toms River, the agency said Wednesday.
A letter from the DEP to the state Attorney General's Office, which acts as the attorney for state agencies, said the company "is willing to engage in substantive discussion for the purposes of seeking an amicable resolution and settlement."
DEP spokesman Fred Mumford said the three parties were still working to schedule a meeting.
The DEP presented Ciba earlier this month with notice that it is pursuing compensation for the years Dover Township residents have been barred from accessing groundwater in the region. The notice gave Ciba 10 days to join them at the settlement table before a lawsuit was filed, Mumford said.
"For right now, we're not going to court," he said Wednesday.
Ciba officials said they hope the company's efforts to remedy the past are taken into consideration.
The DEP will seek damages from Ciba-Specialty Corp. through its role as guardian of public resources, which includes the groundwater and aquifers that for years have been off limits to public usage due to contamination by hazardous chemical discharges at the former dye and resin manufacturing plant on the site, Campbell said.
That compensation could preclude development on the more than 700 acres of the Ciba property that remain undeveloped and uncontaminated.
The DEP has withheld $15 million in state Green Acres funds, approved in 2001 by acting-Gov. John O. Bennett, to purchase the tract, because it deems it an inappropriate expense of Green Acres funds and had sought to protect the land through a settlement with the company, Campbell said.
Dover Township already is suing Ciba for damage to property values at Winding River Park, adjacent to the Ciba property, which has been devalued because of the perception it is polluted by the plume of contaminated groundwater that runs from the Ciba site under the park. That suit was filed in September.
Published in Ocean County Observer on October 24, 2003
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