KEYPORT, NJ — New Jersey officials will launch an investigation into a newly identified cancer cluster in Keyport, and are asking federal authorities for assistance.
At a budget hearing in Washington Tuesday, Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ6) pressed Lee Zeldin, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, for federal help addressing the suspected cancer cluster in Keyport.
Last week, NJ.com was the first to report that 41 people in Keyport have various different cancers, 28 of them on one street near the former Aeromarine landfill, which closed in 1979.
After NJ.com published their report, NJ Health Commissioner Raynard Washington said the state of New Jersey will begin investigating.
Pallone pushed Zeldin, appointed by President Trump, to commit to get the federal government involved as well.
Pallone said he sent the EPA a letter earlier this April about the suspected Keyport cancer cluster, demanding the agency work with New Jersey to clean up the former landfill site.
Zeldin responded Tuesday that the state of New Jersey has not asked for federal help yet.
Zeldin said he is “very well aware of (the issue) ... I know how much of a priority it is. This is an issue that New Jersey DEP has been on the lead on enforcement at the landfill. They have not asked for our assistance, but we stand ready to help.”
"The EPA Region Two administrator, I do want to say, has been cooperative," Pallone said this week. "He met with my staff last Friday to discuss this cancer cluster and remediation of the landfill that we believe may be causing it."
A follow-up meeting is scheduled for later this week.
Pallone wants the state and federal government to do three things: Launch comprehensive environmental testing and clean-up at the location of the former landfill, do a full review of potential health impacts and give more communication with local residents.
Pallone said the former Aeromarine landfill has never been fully remediated, nor properly capped. Since it closed, high amounts of benzene, PCBs, heavy metals and methane gas have been found in the soil in and around Keyport.
"Despite repeated violations and nearly $900,000 in fines issued in recent years, the site remained unsecured and had not been properly capped or cleaned up," said Pallone.
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