Small step at toxic site needs big finish

After a wait of more than two decades, it is gratifying to see that old tanks, barrels and structures are finally being removed from the Imperial Oil property in Marlboro.

It has been a long hard road for dedicated Marlboro residents and officials who have tried to stay on top of the federal Environmental Protection Agency to get this toxic Superfund site cleaned up.

Imperial Oil is a closed plant off Tennent Road near Route 79 in the Morganville section of Marlboro. Imperial Oil was declared a contaminated federal Superfund site in the early 1980s. Remediation work on-site and off-site has been undertaken at various times during the 25 years since Imperial Oil was identified as a problem location.

While the job of cleaning up the site is not finished and will not be finished even when this step had been completed, every step forward is a step in the right direction. Millions of dollars have been spent on design plans for the cleanup of Imperial Oil and on the work that has been done to date. It would be almost criminal to abandon the project at this stage.

It is our hope, and the hope of those individuals who have fought long and hard to rid Marlboro of this polluted property, that we may one day successfully mark the end of the cleanup at Imperial Oil.

One factor that may hamper the cleanup of Imperial Oil and other toxic sites around the nation is the Superfund itself, which has almost run dry and has never been reauthorized by Congress.

Disagreement exists as to whether companies should pay into the Superfund or whether it should be funded through an appropriation in the nation's budget. Right now, thousands of polluted Superfund sites are competing for limited dollars.

As Congressman Rush Holt (D-N.J.), whose district includes Marlboro, states in a News Transcript article about Imperial Oil this week, the Superfund "is leading a pennypinching existence and that makes it hard to clean up all those many Superfund sites in New Jersey."

The present administration in Washington, D.C., has shown no willingness to have Congress reauthorize the Superfund. It is not known if the reauthorization will be a priority in a new administration that will have to contend with the ongoing costly military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a troubled economy.

Environmental problems remain a blight on New Jersey and the United States.

Unfortunately for those who live near these sites and who may live with the impact of the contamination, there does not seem to be much of a commitment on the part of the federal government to deal with these critical issues, and that is a national shame.