Save Barnegat Bay and Toms River Township claim their toxic waste settlement with chemical company BASF is woefully inadequate.
Years of toxic waste dumping in the Jersey Shore area has led to increased rates of childhood cancer, according to environmental groups seeking to overturn a settlement between New Jersey and the successor company of a polluting company. At least $1 billion in damage to natural resources was reported. .
Save Barnegat Bay and Toms River County are suing to cancel a contract between the state and German chemical company BASF. BASF will pay $500,000 to carry out nine environmental remediation projects at former Ciba-Geigy Chemical Corporation plants.
The site became America’s worst toxic waste dump and sparked concerns about a childhood cancer epidemic in and around Toms River.
Save Barnegat Bay says the settlement is woefully inadequate and does not take into account the scope and full nature of the contamination.
The state Department of Environmental Protection defended the agreement, saying it was not primarily about financial compensation. The priority is to restore the affected areas.
“Ciba-Geigy’s releases have destroyed the natural resources of the Toms River and Barnegat Bay,” said Michele Donato, an attorney for the environmental group. “DEP was unable to evaluate decades of evidence present in its own archive files, including reports of dead fish, discolored water, and toxic wastewater.”
These materials include documents dating back to 1958 detailing fish kills and severe oxygen depletion caused by the company dumping chemicals into the Toms River and directly into the ground. Also included is a study by Ciba-Geigy consultants that says contaminated groundwater plumes are three-dimensional and cannot be adequately assessed using the methods New Jersey uses to calculate damage to natural resources. The group said this shows that.
Save Barnegat Bay said in court documents that accurate calculations of damage to the property and surrounding area put it at more than $1 billion.
“This agreement does not compensate for the harm that has been done to our community,” former Toms River Mayor Maurice Hill said during a January public hearing on the settlement.
The state declined to comment. In court documents, the company defended its handling of the damage assessment.
BASF, Ciba-Geigy’s corporate successor, declined to comment on the lawsuit but said it is committed to implementing the settlement reached with New Jersey in 2022.
This will require maintaining nine projects, including wetland and grassland restoration, for 20 years. Create boardwalks, promenades, and elevated observation decks. Construction of an environmental education center.
Starting in the 1950s, Ciba-Geigy, the town’s largest employer, poured chemicals into the Toms River and the Atlantic Ocean and buried 47,000 drums of toxic waste underground. This caused a gush of contaminated water that spread beyond the site and into the residential area, and cleanup work is currently underway.
The state health department found that 87 children were diagnosed with cancer from 1979 to 1995 in Toms River, then known as Dover Township. One study found that childhood cancer and leukemia rates among Toms River girls “increased significantly from 1979 to 1995.” compared to state rates. ” Similar rates were not found for boys.
Although the study did not clearly attribute the increase to Ciba-Geigy dumping, the company and two other companies paid $13.2 million to 69 families whose children were diagnosed with cancer. Ciba-Geigy settled the criminal charges by paying millions of dollars in fines and penalties, on top of the $300 million the company and its successors had previously paid to clean up the site.
