Published in the Asbury Park Press
By Jean Mikle
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
Town will give data to DEP
DOVER TOWNSHIP — Township officials plan to give the state Department of Environmental Protection the results of groundwater testing on the former Ciba-Geigy Corp. Superfund site, Council President Gregory P. McGuckin said Tuesday night.
"We will immediately provide copies of all of these documents to Commissioner (Lisa) Jackson at the DEP, and we will request a meeting with the DEP to discuss the matter," McGuckin said.
McGuckin made his comments after council members and Mayor Paul C. Brush received a closed-session presentation from experts and lawyers involved with the township's lawsuit against Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corp., which owns the 1,350-acre property off Route 37 west and Oak Ridge Parkway.
The experts made a presentation about groundwater testing conducted on the Ciba site in late April. Testing was done in the area of a lined landfill on the property that is believed to contain more than 30,000 drums of waste.
The lawsuit seeks to compel Ciba to remove the waste from the lined landfill. The federal Environmental Protection Agency is supervising the cleanup of pollution source areas on the Ciba site, which was placed on the Superfund list of hazardous waste sites in 1982.
More than 40,000 drums of waste were removed from an unlined landfill on the site. The lawsuit says the DEP's own documents indicate the lined landfill is leaking and may be leaching chemicals into the ground.
Ciba disputes the township's contention and says the landfill is operating as it should and is not leaking. Dover officials wanted the tests to determine if the dump is leaking.
McGuckin said he could not yet comment on the results of the testing, since a final analysis has not yet been completed. He said township officials likely will make a public statement within the next couple of days.
Former DEP Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell last year sided with the township in the Ciba dispute, ordering the company to remove the drums from the lined landfill or face possible legal action from DEP. Brush and council members hope that Jackson will continue Campbell's policy and force Ciba to remove the drums.
Published in the Asbury Park Press 06/21/06
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