TOMS RIVER, NJ (OP-ED)- Nobody has ever accused Governor Phil Murphy of being completely honest when it comes to politics and his policies. The Governor has used politics to push his agenda since taking office in the Garden State.
Whether it was his response to COVID-19, releasing violent criminals from prison, sanctuary state, business taxes, lockdowns or school funding, Murphy has always been a bit of an elitist hypocrite.
That’s why few people in Toms River were surprised when the Murphy administration ignored the requests of local politicians, community leaders, and environmentalists and decided, without regard for the community, to allow the owner of a notorious toxic superfund site to build homes and businesses on one of America’s worst superfund sites.
Murphy and the Democrats, in partnership with major regional commercial and residential developers, see dollars and voters when it comes to building thousands of new homes in the Republican stronghold.
The Ciba-Geigy chemical plant poisoned the drinking water of Toms River, killed dozens of people and polluted a swath of land along a faulty pipeline that carried cancerous deadly waste across the township to be dumped into the Atlantic Ocean.
Not only did the leaky and faulty pipeline release deadly chemical plumes into the drinking water, hundreds, if not thousands, of barrels of toxic waste were just dumped into a pit in barrels that leaked into the city’s water supply.
The result was a cancer cluster responsible for many deaths and cases of cancer over the past thirty-plus years.
Now, Phil Murphy, who served as a U.S. Diplomat to Germany, is allowing German-based BASF Corp to profit from the land they purchased when they wanted to secure patents from Ciba-Geigy.
BASF profited from the purchase of the toxic waste site and continues to laugh in the faces of the families and residents who lost loved ones.
Several local officials contacted Phil Murphy on the matter regarding their concerns about allowing BASF to build a small city on top of a toxic superfund site.
The always-environmentally thinking globalist ignored those calls.
Instead, he allowed his DEP to make a sweetheart deal for the German corporation seeking to profit from the toxic waste site.
According to the Associated Press, “Ciba-Geigy Chemical Corp., the town’s largest employer, had been flushing chemicals into the Toms River and the Atlantic Ocean, and burying 47,000 drums of toxic waste in the ground. This created a plume of polluted water that has spread beyond the site into residential neighborhoods. It made the area one of America’s most notorious Superfund sites, joining the list of the most seriously polluted areas in need of federally supervised cleanup.”
The state health department discovered that 87 children in Toms River were diagnosed with cancer between 1979 and 1995. Research revealed that the occurrences of childhood cancers and leukemia in girls in the area were noticeably higher compared to the rates across the state. Those cases were linked to the Ciba-Giegy pipeline and on-site discharge.
Between 1952 and 1990, the Ciba-Geigy Corporation, later acquired by BASF, ran a dye manufacturing plant in Toms River. The plant’s waste products were either kept in 47,000 drums or treated and conveyed through a pipeline to the Atlantic Ocean. In 1980, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection mandated Ciba-Geigy to initiate groundwater monitoring and remove drums at the plant location. The Toms River site was added to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Superfund list in 1983. Upon investigation, the EPA found that waste from the site was seeping into the groundwater beneath. Consequently, in 1989, the EPA directed Ciba-Geigy to commence the cleaning process of both the site and the affected groundwater.
In a settlement with BASF, Phil Murphy has allowed 200 acres of the 1250-acre site to be sold by the company to build homes and businesses.
Local officials announced this week that they will continue to fight the decision to prevent BASF from ever being allowed to build on the site that has caused so much death and grief within the community.
Dan Rodrick, who is likely to be the next mayor of Toms River said he would like to see the entire site become a wildlife management area, to let the land be reclaimed by nature and return to its natural state.
This weekend, he and current mayor Maurice Hill, bitter enemies for years, agreed on one thing.
Nobody should be allowed to build houses on the toxic waste site, not even Governor Phil Murphy.