Hearings sought on asbestos
TRENTON, N.J. – Two state lawmakers have called for joint hearings into asbestos contamination at a Mercer County industrial site to determine whether the pollution was ignored.
The judicial and environmental hearings will focus on whether contamination at the former W.R. Grace Zonolite plant in Hamilton Township was covered up and whether New Jersey and federal environmental regulators failed to aggressively seek a cleanup.
Assembly members Linda Greenstein and John McKeon called for the hearings that are expected to start May 5.
Representatives from W.R. Grace, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection will be asked to appear before the joint panel.
Information gathered from the hearings will be forwarded to the state Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
A W.R. Grace spokesman said the company had not been contacted regarding the hearings, but it looks forward to obtaining more information.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., is also seeking a federal investigation into the EPA’s role in W.R. Grace plants.
“There are problems here, and we need to know exactly what happened,” Smith told The Times of Trenton for Saturday newspapers.
The Hamilton plant processed vermiculite ore shipped from a northwestern Montana mine from 1948 to 1991. The ore was found to be contaminated with a dangerous form of asbestos.
Hundreds of people in the area around the mine at Libby have been sickened or died as a result of exposure to asbestos in the ore.
Vermiculite is used in fireproofing, insulation and as a garden supply product.
Grace closed the Hamilton plant 11 years ago and hired an environmental company to study the site. That company, Environmental Resources Management, later submitted to the DEP a report that said only an insignificant amount of asbestos remained on the property.
No further testing was required at the site and the matter was closed until 1999, when the EPA began examining 200 plants nationwide that processed raw vermiculite.
EPA tests five years ago found concentrations of asbestos and ordered the removal of 9,000 tons of soil from the Hamilton plant grounds.
A state health report last month determined that former workers and their families were at risk from asbestos exposure.
It also indicated that nearby businesses and residents, as well as employees of the current building occupant, Accurate Document Destruction Inc., may have been exposed.