BY ELAINE VAN DEVELDE
Staff Writer
EDISON — It took 15 years and a tough fight to transform the former Chemical Insecticide Corporation (CIC) site and the surrounding land from toxic to squeaky clean.
And now officials are eyeing the site that was once considered a danger to the 77,000 residents living near it as a possible recreational haven.
The adjacent 6-acre Muller Industries tract, which has a number of tax liens, is part of the plan to transform nearly 12 acres of the now clean, green land to whatever township residents want.
“The deeds are not in anyone’s hands yet, though,” said Robert Spiegel, executive director of the Edison Wetlands Association. “Muller should be relatively easy to acquire because of the tax liens, but the township needs to really move quickly to make sure they get CIC.”
A recent appraisal of the properties was roughly $2 million.
Mayor George A. Spadoro asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) earlier this year to have the land deeded over to Edison as a trade-off for the hazards it posed to residents for years.
“We tried that route, but it did not work,” said the mayor last week. “Now we’re just going to go after any funding possible to secure the land. Now that it’s clean, we think the people in this town deserve to enjoy it.”
But before the property titles are in officials’ hands, plans for whatever the community wants must be assessed first.
Former Councilman William Stephens, who is running for mayor as an independent candidate, will survey the community’s wishes for the land.
Stephens is also the president of the Edison Community Association. He plans to go door to door this week to ask residents what should be done with the “somewhat isolated” sites, he said.
“Most of the parks in Edison are neighborhood parks,” Stephens said. “This is in south Edison, but given the size and location near Metuchen, [the land] would probably serve more of the surrounding community. So it’s important to see what they really want before anything becomes definite.”
Stephens said his group will not use survey forms.
“I tend to think that survey forms, with a few options listed, tend to drive people in one direction and don’t give them enough opportunity to speak their minds completely,” he said. “We will just interview and take notes.”
So far, ideas for the land include a dog park, senior center, community center and a passive/active park, he said.
The prospects are ones officials and environmentalists never thought possible even a year ago.
The site was tainted with pesticides, herbicides and rodenticides as well as chemical barrels and lagoons.
While CIC was designated a Superfund site, the adjacent Muller site also reaped the benefits of the cleanup.
“The properties are clean enough to be used for a park or any purpose,” said Robert Spiegel, executive director of the Edison Wetlands Association. “You can see by the last trench dug — how it was laid out and graded — that the EPA went above and beyond what they had to do. All they were required to do was dig up anything on Muller that was listed specifically as CIC site-specific toxins, like arsenic and pesticides. They did more and they will continue to monitor the groundwater there as well.”
Officials are trying to come up with the roughly $2 million to buy the tracts.
The Edison Wetlands Association has already committed about $500,000. The funds came from the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Green Acres program.
It amounts to about half the cost of CIC alone, Spiegel said.
“We’re looking to the county, state and federal governments for other grants,” Spadoro said. “It’s a good investment, so I don’t think we’ll have any trouble.”
If CIC’s owners will not sell the land to Edison, the township will move toward condemnation of the site to acquire it at fair market value, the mayor said.
The tax lien on the Muller site is worth $354,000, Spadoro said. That will put more money in the till toward the acquisitions, he said.