Document x82jELN4VdQ3vnQ2Xk6K8x96

I -meeting j planned onPCB burning By TOM WILK Of The Times Stall WOODBURY - High-level mem bers from the state and federal government's environmental agencies will meet with local leaders to disc uss the proposed test burning of PCBs at the Rollins Environmental Services Jnc. facility in Logan Township. U.S. Rep. James J. Flono, D-lst .Dist., and Assemblyman Kenneth A . -GewerU, D-4, said they would request ' Chris Beck, a regional director with th* U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Daniel O'Hem, director ' of the state Department of En vironmental Protection (DEP), to attend the meeting. The announcement was made Saturday morning during a 30-mmute meeting at the Gloucester County Courthouse here with the mayors of Swedesboro and Logan, Woolwich and Greenwich townships. Other persons at the meeting included Logan Township Solicitor Kenneth A. DiMuzio and the Rev. James Davis, a ' Bridgeport minister instrumental in arranging Saturday's meeting. `The meeting will take place before the proposed bum takes place," Flono said, noting that it probably will come within the nert month. "Before they make a decision on a bum, the people re entitled to some answers," he added. Gewertx said state officials should be as concerned with protecting the .' people around Rollins as they are in preserving the Pinelands. . Saturday's session centered around I the appropriateness of using Rollins as , a disposal site for the polychlorinated . biphenyls (PCBs), a potential cancer ' causing agent. MWe should require state and federal officials to provide answers as to the appropriateness of Rollins," said Joseph Musumeci, the * mayor of Swedesboro. Greenwich Township Mayor Dominic Merino expressed concern since PCBs would have to be tranI sported through the township U they ' are to be burned at Rollins. 4 In a report submitted to the Gloucester County Board of : Freeholders and the Solid Waste Advisory Council, Logan Solicitor DiMuiio enumerated 20 environmental Considerations in an argument to exclude Hollins from being included in proposed solid waste management plan for G loucester County. ' The solicitor cited the potential danger to residents of Logan and Woolwich townships as well as the possible damage to agriculture, aquifiers and floodplains in the area. He also pointed out that both towns are growing, and that Rollins could ad versely ailed the economic growth of the area. After the meeting. DiMuzio said the PCB question is now a "moral issue." `The moral issue is whether the federal government can impose upon Logan Township and Gloucester County an unreasonable risk of harm associated with the hazardous waste facility located here," he explained. DiMuzio said the federal govern ment hasn't analyzed the Rollins site io determine whether it is adequate for burning PCBs. He noted the federal government banned PCBs in August 1978 and decided they must be disposed. of by incineration. ' "However, they didn't establish the election site criteria on where to locate an Incineration facility," DiMuzio explained. In a related matter, both the Gloucester County Mayors Association and leaders of the Beckett housing development have gone on record opposing the test burn ci PCBs at Rollins. I The association vrted against the test bum during their meeting Friday night at the Tall Pines Inn in Deptford Township. Beckett, the owners and developers of 7,000 acres of land in Logan and Woolwich townships, are opposed to the test bum because of the potential effects on the local population and "the inherent dangers to an even more widespread population base." Both Beckett and the Pureland Industiial Complex announced their opposition in a letter sent to the DEP. 0062902 TOWOLDMONOQ55761