by Tom Mongelli
After a prolonged process, the company responsible for leaving tens of thousands of chemical-laden drums undground on its Toms River property decades ago is absorbed into an even larger firm. But it doesn't change the battle local officials are waging to clear the Superfund site.
German-based conglomerate BASF completed its acquisition of Switzerland-based Ciba in April, a move that company officials say will strengthen their operations in the Northeastern United States. The world's largest chemical company also inherits the court action Toms River launched to force the removal of almost 40-thousand chemical-filled drums from an underground storage cell.
Toms River Council President Greg McGuckin says that the current township administration wasted no time establishing contact with the new regime. "Mayor (Thomas) Kelaher and the township's staff are reaching out to BASF to discuss the future of the property," McGuckin says.
Ciba manufactured dye on the site for nearly four decades until 1990. Waste chemicals were stored in drums and pumped directly into the Atlantic Ocean. New Jersey environmental officials ordered Ciba to start removing drums and remediating soil in 1980. The tract was placed on the EPA's Superfund list three years later. The Ciba site, along with an illegal dumping of Union Carbide chemicals at the Reich Farm site and the subsequent closure of nearby drinking water wells, led to a study of cancer rates and the formation of the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster, which conducts quarterly reviews of progress on all fronts to this day.
The company paid more than $19 million to remove about 38,000 drums from one of two underground storage cells. Company reps claim that an almost-identical number are secure in a similar cell that's lined against leakage. Township officials conducted tests and concluded that it does leak, and poses a renewed environmental and health threat.
McGuckin says that no action could proceed until the acquisiton was completed. "Now that they do own it," he says, "the time has come to see where we're going to go from here. And they've indicated that they would like to sit down and discuss it."
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