Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- Dover Township Mayor Paul C. Brush said he is not pleased with comments made by a state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman who said the agency joined the township's lawsuit against Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corp. only because of a judge's order.
"Frankly I am disappointed with the DEP," Brush said yesterday.
The DEP was forced to join the township's suit against Ciba Specialty Chemicals -- owner of the former Ciba-Geigy Corp. Superfund site -- after state Superior Court Judge Edward M. Oles ruled that the agency is an interested party in the suit.
Oles' ruling came following a motion by Ciba Specialty Chemicals to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed last year. Assistant Township Attorney Alison L. Newman said Ciba withdrew its motion to dismiss the suit.
But Robert Cash, the environmental attorney representing Dover in the matter, argued before Oles that the DEP should be brought into the litigation, either as a plaintiff or a defendant, Newman said.
"We were prepared to make them a defendant," Newman said yesterday. "They were the ones who said, 'No, we want to be brought in as a plaintiff.' "
DEP spokesman Fred Mumford said Monday that the agency continues to think the lawsuit is between Ciba and Dover, and it should not involve the DEP. He said agency officials agreed to join the suit "reluctantly," after receiving the judge's order.
The township claims groundwater contamination emanating from the Ciba site has reduced property values at adjacent Winding River Park, which is owned by Dover.
The township is seeking compensation for the lower property values.
The township's suit also asks the court to allow Dover to intervene in the ongoing cleanup operation at the Ciba site, located off Route 37 West and Oak Ridge Parkway. Dover is attempting to force Ciba to remove about 35,000 drums from a lined landfill at the property.
The current cleanup plan for the site calls for the removal of about 35,000 drums from an unlined landfill at Ciba. That work is under way, and more than 14,000 drums have been excavated from the landfill.
But the cleanup plan allows the drums in the lined landfill to remain. That landfill is overseen by the DEP, which issues the monitoring permit that allows leachate tainted groundwater collected from the dump to be regularly tested for pollutants.
The township's suit argues that the DEP's own documents indicate the landfill's liner is leaking, and it notes that Ciba violated the terms of its initial permit for the landfill, which called for it to be filled with only nonhazardous waste.
DEP officials have said hazardous wastes were dumped in the landfill, but their own records show no evidence that the liner is leaking.
Mumford said Monday that the DEP has been negotiating with Ciba to seek compensation for groundwater pollution caused by the company's industrial dye and resin making operations. But he said the DEP's stance toward the lined landfill has not changed, which makes it unclear what position the agency will take in regard to that issue in the lawsuit.
Brush, who late last week said he was pleased the DEP had decided to join with the township to demand removal of the drums, said yesterday he was disappointed that the agency's official position has not changed.
"The judge just wants them involved, and clearly we think they are an interested party," Brush said. He said he is still hopeful that the judge's order "will give impetus to removing the drums, and that's all I care about."
Council President Gregory P. McGuckin chastised the DEP Monday, saying the township does not need the agency's help if it will not support Dover's position regarding removal of all drums from the Ciba site.
Published in the Asbury Park Press 5/05/04
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