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‘Greened’ Edison Superfund site to stay green
July 18th, 2007
by: SULEMAN DIN
Star-Ledger Staff
Edison’s township council plans to support a move to ensure the Chemical Insecticide Corp. site is never built on again by rezoning it for recreational use.
“They’re preparing the ordinance now,” said Charles Tomaro, council president. “Every member on the board wants to preserve it.”
When Chemical Insecticide Corp. stopped using the property in the 1970s, its five acres were deemed one of the most polluted sites in the state. But after a $50 million effort, the Superfund site was declared clean.
“Now it’s one of the most green sites in the state,” Tomaro said.
The council doesn’t want to see any buildings erected on the site, Tomaro said, adding that one possible use would be a dog park.
“Even people from Metuchen could come and use it,” he said.
Tomaro said Edison could secure the property through a venture between the council and the Edison Wetlands Association, which is offering the township a $500,000 grant toward purchasing the land.
The land, and an adjacent polluted six acres belonging to a defunct company called Muller Machinery, are assessed at about $2 million.
The site’s owners agreed that 90 percent of the money it gets for selling the land goes to reimburse the federal government’s costs for the cleanup, which started in July 1993.
“With the money from Edison Wetlands, I’m sure we can work an amount out,” Tomaro said.
But the EWA’s president, Robert Spiegel, said Mayor Jun Choi’s administration has not taken up their offer to provide Edison with the grant, which it received from the state’s Green Acres program.
“We’re going to lose that money if it isn’t used,” Spiegel said.
The former administration of Mayor George Spadoro agreed to take the Edison Wetland funds and hoped to buy the land through friendly negotiations with Muller Machinery and the owners of the CIC property.
Spiegel said he worried the Choi administration would allow some of the CIC property to be developed by a neighboring business, which wanted the tract for a vast warehouse it is constructing.
Choi declined to discuss the EWA’s offer of its grant money, but said he favored the preservation of the land.
“We support the preservation of the site as open space or a park,” Choi said.
Suleman Din may be reached at sdin@starledger.com or (732) 404-8084.
