Toxic Dumpers Told To Clean It Up

NEWARK (CN) - Edison Wetlands Associates demands that chemical giants Akzo Nobel and Basell USA clean up 97 acres that have been used as a toxic waste dump since 1900. Plaintiffs say the site on the Raritan River continuously leaks shiny orange sludge and toxic tar into the river, and the companies and the government have done nothing to stop it, despite a state order to do so - in 1985.

Wetlands Associates Executive Director Robert Spiegel says the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has known of the toxic sludge flowing into the river since 1985, when the site became the focus of the New Jersey Environmental Cleanup Responsibility Act and the New Jersey Industrial Site Recovery Act.

The NJDEP issued an order in 1985 to investigate the site and remediate the toxic waste dumped, buried and stored there. But for more than 20 years, Spiegel says, toxic substances have been produced, stored and dumped there with no relief for residents who use the river for hiking, boating, fishing, crabbing and bird watching.

See federal complaint.

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