By LAWRENCE R. HAJNA
Courier-Post Staff
The Delaware River is the sixth most polluted waterway in the nation ... and three other New Jersey rivers are among the 50 dirtiest ... according to a study released Tuesday.
Environmentalists from New Jersey and Pennsylvania gathered at the main gate of the Coastal Eagle Point Refinery in West Deptford to release the "Dishonorable Discharge" study. Compiled by the Washington, D.C., Environmental Working Group, the report was released Tuesday by environmental groups around the state and nation.
Nationally, industries legally dumped 1 billion pounds of toxic chemicals into the nation's waterways and flushed another 450 million pounds into sewer systems between 1990 and 1994, the study said. The study's data comes from the national Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), which is based on industry's own accounting of the toxic chemicals released into the water, air and land.
Other state waterways ranking in the top 50 of the nation's most polluted are: the Raritan River, 14; the Arthur Kill, 25; and the Hackensack River, 50.
Coastal, whose plant sprawls along the river in West Deptford and Westville, was named one of the leading dischargers of toxic chemicals into the river.
Coastal officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday. A spokeswoman for a chemical company trade group and New Jersey officials said the report is misleading because it doesn't show how chemical companies have reduced toxins over the years. The state has an aggressive toxic waste tracking and testing program.
From 1990 to 1994, companies on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River legally discharged more than 12 million pounds of chemicals into the waterway. Most of that came from the DuPont Company's Deepwater, Salem County, chemical plant. Coastal discharged 181,616 pounds. Companies on the Pennsylvania side of the river dumped another 1.3 million pounds into the waterway.
Why should South Jersey residents care? They drink the water, for one. The underground water source that supplies most of the region's drinking water juts into the river at various points and river water seeps into that geologic sponge.
Plus, in April, New Jersey-American Water Co. opened a treatment plant in Delran to pump river water to many area residents for the first time. The state requires the company to remove contaminants, but the dirtier the water, the more it costs to cleanse. That is why river water costs consumers more than underground water.
The Delaware is also used for fishing, swimming and boating. And while no one has conclusively linked river water to disease, state and federal agencies have cautioned against eating fish from the river ... especially in the highly polluted area around Camden and Philadelphia.
The discharge study doesn't make any direct scientific links between water quality and human or aquatic health problems in the nation's waterways, but the environmental groups said many chemicals have been linked to cancer, reproductive disorders and other health problems.
Phosphoric acid, a fertilizer ingredient that irritates skin and mucous membranes, was the leading toxin over the reporting period. Ammonia was next. It can irritate human lungs, is moderately toxic to aquatic organisms and can contribute to overfertilization of waterways.
"We know the dangers of these chemicals to humans and other life forms," said David Masur, field coordinator for the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group. "The effects are often difficult to track. But we should be backing stronger protections for our waterways."
Nationally, only the Mississippi River, the Houston, Texas, ship channel, the Pacific Ocean, Ohio River and Gravelly Run in Virginia received more pollution during the study period. The Mississippi received more then 782 million pounds of chemicals, compared with the Delaware's 13.3 million pounds.
Tri-county industries at the top of the discharge list include Monsanto's Bridgeport plant; Occidental Chemical Corp. in Burlington Township; Mobil Oil's Paulsboro refinery; and DuPont's Gibbstown facility, which is now largely phased out.
An industry trade group representing many companies on the list said that lumping multiple years of chemical release data together does not fairly reflect efforts business has made to reduce pollution.
"From 1993 to 1994, for example, our member companies reduced pollution to the water by 49 percent," said Mary Jen Beach, spokeswoman for the Chemical Industry Council of New Jersey. "We're making every effort to reduce emissions, and we're proud of that."
DuPont spokeswoman Mary Kate McDonald said discharges from her company's Deepwater facility included 11 million pounds of ammonia, used in various manufacturing processes. McDonald said the facility remained within state-permitted levels for ammonia during the 1990-94 study period. "Those standards were set to protect the river," she said.
Environmentalists said the study highlights the need for tougher state and federal laws to reduce chemical waste discharges.
The environmentalists acknowledged the Toxic Release Inventory has resulted in reductions of many pollutants. But they said Clinton administration proposals requiring electric utilities, mining companies and hazardous waste treatment companies to report discharges under the TRI program don't go far enough. They're also worried that Gov. Christie Whitman will ease New Jersey's water pollution laws.
The TRI currently requires business to report only about 340 of the 72,000 chemicals industries produce or release into the environment, said Jerry Flanagan. He is clean water campaign organizer of the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group.
"It's just a glimpse of what's really out there," Flanagan said of current reporting requirements.
Top dischargers Top N.J. and Pa. dischargers of chemicals to the Delaware River, 1990-94 (in pounds):
1. DuPont, Deepwater, Salem County, 11,478,906.
2. BP Exploration & Oil Inc., Trainer Pa., 289,590.
3. Coastal Eagle Point Oil Inc., West Deptford, 181,616.
4. Monsanto Co., Bridgeport, 177,959.
5. J.T. Baker Inc., Phillipsburg, 90,948.
6. Occidental Corp. (now Colorite Polymers), Burlington Township, 48,582.
7. Roche Vitamins, Belvidere, 36,052.
8. Mobil Oil Paulsboro Refinery, Greenwich, 28,132.
9. United States Steel, Fairless Hills, Pa., 21,318.
10. Franklin Smelting & Refining, Philadelphia, Pa., 7,500.
Source: Environmental Working Group. Compiled from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Toxic Release Inventory data.
