The Ciba-Geigy Chemical Corporation site covers 1,400 acres in Toms River, New Jersey. The facility made dyes, pigments, resins, and epoxy additives from 1952 to 1996. Waste disposal practices over those decades left groundwater, soil, surface water, and sludge contaminated. The site was added to the EPA's National Priorities List (NPL) in 1983, which flags it as a priority for federal cleanup funding and oversight.
Contaminants of concern include organic solvents such as trichloroethene, tetrachloroethene, benzene, toluene, and chlorobenzene, along with metals including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, and mercury. Contaminated groundwater flowed toward the Toms River and nearby wetlands. Residential areas sit within half a mile on both the north and south sides of the property, and an elementary school is located along the southwestern boundary.
Cleanup was organized into three operable units covering sitewide conditions, groundwater, and source control. For groundwater, a pump-and-treat system has been running since March 1996 and has treated roughly 17 billion gallons total, processing about 1.2 million gallons per day. The system was upgraded in 2014 to add air stripping, activated carbon adsorption, and iron removal. For source areas, more than 47,000 drums were removed between December 2003 and November 2004, and contaminated soil was excavated and treated through on-site bioremediation, finishing in 2010. EPA approved a final remedial action completion report in 2015, and overall site construction was completed in September 2012.
EPA assessments show that human exposure is currently under control and that contaminated groundwater migration is stabilized with no unacceptable discharge to surface water. Physical construction across the entire site is complete. However, the site has not yet met all criteria for being fully ready for anticipated reuse, and it has not been deleted from the NPL. The site is estimated to reach sitewide readiness between February and April 2028. A proposed solar energy project by Toms River Merchant Solar, LLC would place a 35-megawatt ground-mounted array across about 118 acres, operated by EDF Renewable Energy under a lease with BASF.
Community members can stay informed through EPA's five-year review process, the most recent of which was completed in February 2023. A fact sheet about that review is available, and site records can be reviewed in person at the Ocean County Public Library at 101 Washington Street in Toms River, or at the EPA Superfund Records Center at 290 Broadway, 18th floor, in New York City.
