Ringwood Ford dump still holds toxic PCBs

Thursday, December 16, 2004
By BARBARA WILLIAMS and JAN BARRY
STAFF WRITERS

RINGWOOD - Cancer-causing PCBs are among the waste that remains at a former Ford dump in the hills above the Wanaque Reservoir, a federal environmental official confirmed Wednesday.

The statement by cleanup project manager Joe Gowers followed a former federal Superfund official's report that Ford's inadequate initial cleanup left a health threat to residents that is one of the most severe in the nation.

Also Wednesday, a manager of the Wanaque Reservoir system, which serves 2 million North Jersey residents, said PCBs periodically showed up in tests during the 1990s of streams that originate in the dump site.

The disclosure that Ford consultants found high levels of PCBs during the original cleanup, which ended in 1994, was made by Bruce Molholt, a toxicologist who previously worked for the Environmental Protection Agency. Molholt, hired as a consultant to attorneys for area residents, reported the findings to residents and environmental and health investigators Monday.

A cleanup project is under way to remove mounds of lead-based paint sludge from woodlands, including a section of Ringwood State Park, as well as residential lawns. Renewed government inspection of the site was prompted by discovery of residual sludge and by unexplained health problems, ranging from cancer to asthma and skin rashes among the resident Ramapough Mountain Indian community, although there is no definite proof they are linked.

Ford Motor Co. dumped paint sludge, solvents and car parts from 1967 to 1974 in and around old mine shafts. It undertook an EPA-monitored cleanup and the area was officially declared safe in 1994. But residents continued to find sludge and Ford removed more waste in 1995 and 1997. Residents raised a renewed outcry last year through a law firm that is pressing for a thorough cleanup and a study of residents' health.

Since the original cleanup began in 1987, government reports have focused on heavy metals, such as lead and cadmium, and chemical solvents on the sites. Molholt's research found that the only mention of PCBs were by Ford consultants in 1987-90, who reported high levels of PCBs in soil tests and removal of waste oils.

"The inability of the investigations to address the toxicology of PCBs has been a major omission," Molholt said in a phone interview. "You've got more pervasive contamination there than virtually any other site I've seen."

He likened the potential health threat from the Ringwood dump to Love Canal near Niagara Falls, N.Y., where an entire neighborhood was evacuated during a federal cleanup. He said if PCBs were burned in fires that residents recall at the dump sites, they produced chemicals akin to dioxins, which can cause cancer, skin rashes and other illnesses similar to ailments residents complain about.

Gowers, the EPA project manager at the dump site, said Wednesday that "We know, based on the testing done in 1987, that there were PCBs on the site. As far as the [Molholt] report released on Monday, there may be some discrepancy as to whether the PCBs were found in the [paint] sludge or the soil.

"We expect to find PCBs in the sludge. They will be removed when we remove the sludge. If soil sampling shows PCBs, then we would have Ford remove the soil also. We are testing for PCBs in the surface and groundwater, and should get those results in January."

A Ford spokesman, Jon Holt, said the company will continue to follow the EPA's direction.

"We realize we have to roll up our sleeves and address these issues," Holt said of Molholt's report and other issues discussed Monday.

Meanwhile, Michael Barnes, a spokesman for the North Jersey Water District, which operates the nearby Wanaque Reservoir, said his agency periodically in the 1990s found tiny amounts of PCBs during water tests of streams flowing through the former Superfund site to the reservoir. Barnes said his agency provided that data to the EPA at the time.

He said his agency's lab is not qualified for intensive PCB testing, but that he would order it if new tests at the site show the substance is still there.

State Environmental Commissioner Bradley Campbell said Wednesday of Molholt's findings, "It remains stunning to me how this was missed in the original cleanup efforts. Ford and EPA need to start from scratch in terms of the investigation of this site and cleanup. There clearly was an inadequate job the first time."

He said he was awaiting a report that an environmental group, Edison Wetlands Association, is to release today. The Edison-based nonprofit advocacy group said Wednesday that its tests found "dangerously high levels of contaminants in Ringwood State Park" within the dumping area.

Campbell said, "We are very concerned that it [contamination] affects the park."

Molholt said that in examining EPA files, he found reports of waste oil and sludge so contaminated by PCBs that a disposal company refused to take the material. Yet PCBs, he noted, are not mentioned in the health assessment reports that the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry did on the Ringwood site in 1989 and 1994.

Greg Ulirsch, a spokesman for that agency, said Wednesday that the ASTDR reports were based on EPA information provided at the time.
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RINGWOOD MINES TIMELINE

1740s-1930: One of largest iron mining operations |in the United States.

1931: Mine is closed.

1964: Ringwood Realty Co., composed mainly |of Ford Motor Co. executives, purchases land |to build housing.

1967: Ford begins dumping car parts, sludge |and solvents after attempt to develop fails.

1972: Area used for municipal and private landfill.

1974: Ford ceases dumping.

1983: Area declared Superfund site by the federal government.

1984: Monitoring wells installed.

1987-90: Ford removes 7,000 cubic yards and 727 tons of paint sludge, plus 61 drums of toxic waste.

1994: EPA takes site off Superfund list.

1995: Resident finds paint sludge in back yard; |5 cubic yards removed.

1997: More paint sludge discovered on borough-owned portion of property; 30 cubic yards removed.

1998: Orange-colored ooze found; tests reveal |unsafe levels of aluminum, iron, manganese |and benzene.

1999-2000: Tests reveal elevated levels of arsenic.

2002: Ford requests monitoring wells be closed; |request denied by EPA.

2004: U.S. Department of Health and Human |Services meets with residents to hear their |concerns. Federal and state environmental |agencies begin comprehensive reviews of the site and order Ford to go back in for further cleanup.
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Fast facts about PCBs

* What they are: PCBs stands for polychlorinated biphenyls, a family of 209 chemical compounds made in U.S. factories until 1978, when the federal government banned their manufacture. PCBs |are synthetic, usually exist as oily liquids or vapor, and have no smell or taste.

* Industrial uses: As flame retardants, coolants and lubricants for machinery and appliances, such as fluorescent lighting fixtures and hydraulic oil. They can be released into the environment from improper disposal of industrial wastes through burial; by leaks from machinery containing PCBs or by burning wastes in incinerators.

* Exposure: Highly toxic, even in small amounts, PCBs do not readily break down. They cling to soil on the ground and in bottom sediments in rivers, streams and wells. PCBs accumulate in fish, |marine mammals and shellfish; the compounds |are transferred to humans when eaten.

* Dangers: May cause cancer, particularly of the |liver or biliary tract; skin rash and acne; anemia; |infants who ingested PCBs from mother's breast milk have shown decreased neurological functions.

* Reducing the risk: Don't allow children to play |in old industrial areas, to eat dirt or put dirty hands |to mouth; have children wash hands frequently; avoid eating fish or shellfish from |PCB-contaminated waterways.


Sources: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as Ohio State University.

E-mail: barry@northjersey.com and williamsb@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2004 North Jersey Media Group Inc.