ABERDEEN — The cost of removing hazardous chemicals at the South River Metals site is unknown.

Without knowing what the developer will do there, cleanup costs can only be speculated on, Township Manager Mark Coren said.

"You have to know what use you are going to do to know the [cost]," he said.

About 20 requests for proposals have been sent out by the township to poten­tial developers, Coren said. The submis­sion deadline is Oct. 1.

"We are waiting with bated breathe to get the RFPs (requests for propos­als)," Coren said. "When we get them, we’ll know [the cleanup costs], and a team of people will evaluate them from there."

A township report for potential de­velopers at the 13.86-acre former South River Metals factory was made, to in­form its prospective developer of the ex­istence of chemicals needed to be re­moved from the site.

The report on the site, done by T&M Associates, Middletown, was issued in June 1997, and found site soils contami­nated with cadmium, chromium and lead, Assistant Municipal Engineer Timothy Gillen said.

Asbestos also exists there, he said.

Testing was performed on the site in 1996, from March to August. "[Aberdeen] had the studies done to in­form a prospective developer about what is needed to be done at the scene," Gillen said.

The chromium found on the site was predominantly chromium VI, he said.

Chromium VI has been linked to in­creased health problems in humans, in­cluding cancer, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Dis­ease Registry, Atlanta.

The World Health Organization de­termined that chromium VI is a human carcinogen, while the federal Environ­mental Protection Agency also stated that airborne chromium VI is a human carcinogen.

Contaminated polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) residue has also been found on the site. That came from tanks once used in the smelting and metal­work factory, he said.

About 2,500 gallons of oil have been removed from a fuel oil tank, but some contamination still remains.

"The tank was pumped out. But no matter what, when you pump it out, there’s always some minor residual left in the tank," he said.

Materials, primarily from building remnants, containing asbestos were found on the site, Gillen said.

Twenty-two of the 42 tested areas were found to have contaminants, he said. All types of chemicals were found at different locations throughout the site, he said.

The 1997 report stated that chemi­cals found on the site, in their present state, did not threaten the safety of the surrounding air and water, he said.

"There’s no drinking water in that area," Gillen said.

The property is surrounded by fenc­ing, and gates are up on its driveways to keep people off the site, he said.

"The site is fairly benign, but you don’t let anyone on [it]," he said.

The township removed the majority of the asbestos on site, because it is most dangerous when it is airborne, making it an immediate threat, he said.

"So that was the reason that, upon identification in the report in 1996 of asbestos contamination, [the township] did the remediation in 1997," he said.

"They’ve (the township) already done some mitigation to remove any­thing that was immediately dangerous to the public," Gillen said.

No deadline will be given to the cho­sen site developer to clean the area up, he said. The state Department of Envi­ronmental Protection always keeps a close eye on redevelopment projects where cleanup is necessary.

"They have a very critical part to play on the actual remediation," Gillen said.

Chromium VI is usually found natu­rally in the environment, said Sharon Wilbur, environmental health scientist for the federal Agency for Toxic Sub­stances and Disease Registry.

"It’s not going to get into the air. It’s a metal, so it would be absorbed into the soil," she said.

Chromium VI is not mobile in the soil, meaning it won’t travel into the land of surrounding residents, she said.

While chromium VI is the most dan­gerous, any type of acid can turn it into the less toxic chromium III, she said. Most likely, if it did travel, it would be converted to chromium III before doing so, she said.

"Chromium III is not considered to be very toxic on its own, it just does not do much," she said.

Chromium VI can be damaging to the respiratory system if inhaled, she said.

Workers inhaling it on a regular basis can eventually get lung cancer, she said. However, a high concentration would be needed to develop cancer, she added.

If the chemical is ingested, it is likely that stomach acid will convert it to chromium III, she said.

However, high enough concentrations of it can cause damage to the intestines, she said.

Symptoms of chromium contamina­tion include nasal irritation and/or burn­ing of the hands, she said.

Physical con­tact would be needed for it to cause damage.

Asbestos can cause lung cancer and cancer in the lining of the lungs, but only after exposure to it for a long pe­riod of time, said Susan Kess, chief medical officer for the division of toxi­cology at the Agency for Toxic Sub­stances and Disease Registry.

Low concentrations of asbestos fibers are removed naturally by the lungs.

The body does a good job fighting it, she said.

"You have to be exposed to it for a long period of time, and to a large amount, for your lung capacity to de­crease because of it," she said.

The township is looking for develop­ers to build 65 rental or condominium units for low- to moderate- income se­niors.

By josh davidson

Staff Writer

Chemical cleanup costs unknown in Aberdeen