Published in the Ocean County Observer
By MATT PORIO
Staff Writer
47,000 drums removed
TOMS RIVER -- Final count: 47,055 drums of waste, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. But for some, there's still 38,000 to go.
The removal of drums from the stacked drum area of the Ciba-Geigy Superfund site on Route 37, which began last December, is finished, about six months sooner than expected, the Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday.
However, township officials and local activists aren't done fighting and will continue to push for the removal of about 38,000 drums from a second, contested site.
The completion of the drum removal from the stacked drum area "marks a major milestone in the ongoing cleanup of the site," said Kathleen C. Callahan, acting regional administrator of the EPA, which, with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, has been overseeing the cleanup by Ciba Specialty Chemical Corp.
"By removing these drums, we have also removed a source of the contamination and have taken a big step toward completing the cleanup," she said.
"I'm very pleased with the progress they made," Mayor Paul C. Brush said. "They did what they had to do and got it done ahead of schedule."
"But we still have a big project ahead of us, and that's cell one," he said referring to the contested site.
From 1952 to 1990 Ciba-Geigy Chemical Corp. manufactured dyes, pigments, resins and epoxy additives on the property -- about 1,400 acres of developed and undeveloped land, including wetlands -- and buried sludge and chemical process wastes in drums, or disposed of them in lagoons and other areas, according to the EPA.
Contamination from some of the areas is leaching into the ground water, which is contaminated, along with soil at the site, which was listed on the National Priorities List of the nation's most hazardous sites in 1983, the EPA said in a statement.
The EPA will continue with water and soil treatment at the site, and will continue to dispose of any waste drums that are discovered during the remaining cleanup work. About 2 million gallons of water per day are treated at the site, while soil treatment is expected to continue for about five more years, according to the EPA.
Dover Township Mayor Paul C. Brush yesterday said the announcement of the completed removal was welcome news.
Toms River resident Bruce Anderson, who son was diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia about 13 years ago, said he was happy to hear the removal of drums from the Superfund site is complete, but immediately turned steered the conversation to the other site.
"I'm glad that they completed the roughly 47,000 drum removal in a timely manner," he said. "But I'm concerned because they're only removing half of them. There are still 38,000 drums in cell one that need to be removed."
EPA and Ciba-Geigy officials have said the second landfill is lined and not leaking, but township officials have said they have evidence to the contrary.
Dover Township has tried to force the excavation of the second site, which is not considered a Superfund site, through litigation.
But Brush began meeting with state officials in the fall to convince the DEP to force the excavation of the contested site.
"I spoke personally to DEP Commissioner Brad Campbell at the League of Municipality conference (in November), and he assured me he'd go back to the Ciba case to review it and get back to me," Brush said.
"They did a good job" with the removal of the drums from the Superfund site, he said. "The next project is cell one. We've got to get those drums removed."
Like Brush, Anderson was focused on the future.
"The EPA and the DEP have failed us," he said, referring to the contested landfill. "Those drums, while remaining there, present us with a hazard somewhere down the line. Now is the time to get them out."
Published in the Ocean County Observer 12/15/04
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