The Edison Wetlands Association has launched an all-out effort to stop the horrific pollution of the Raritan River by Akzo Nobel and Basell in Edison. Edison Wetlands has started holding rallies every two weeks, and the next one is December 22 at the polluting facility (at the corner of Meadow and Midvale near the Edison Boat Basin in Edison, NJ), and anyone is welcome. They'll be caroling Akzo Nobel / Basell, and "Toxic Claus" will make an appearance to draw much-deserved attention. Edison Wetlands' next step will be to rally in front of NJ DEP headquarters in Trenton -- stay tuned for details.

I spoke with the Association's Director Bob Spiegel today, who described the nose-and-eyes-burning pollution seeping straight into the Raritan River (which feeds into the Raritan Bay), consisting of asbestos, carcinogens, oil, tar, benzene and other chemicals. When it's low-tide, it's easy to see the face-burning muck seeping from the banks and from the surface. The area is dead, and the photographs (by an outside engineering firm) are disgusting. The benzene, for instance, has been documented by Akzo's own consultant to be 860 times acceptable state levels. The same consultant found arsenic at over 550 times the NJ DEP's surface water criteria.

Yet the Raritan River area is a place where families play, fish and recreate. "This [pollution] is occurring 100 yards upstream of the Edison Boat Basin," says Spiegel. It's certainly conceivable that parts of nearby towns to Edison such as Highland Park, New Brunswick, East Brunswick, Sayreville, South River, Milltown and beyond could also be impacted by the pollution.

Spiegel explained to me that the rallies are a form of last resort. "We've already been doing everything in our legal power [to stop the pollution]. We've been calling on the NJ DEP for a long time, and they've failed to do anything [about the pollution] despite the rounds of extensive data showing the levels of pollution. We've had no choice but to file a Federal lawsuit as a result."

For additional detail, or just to request photos of the poisoning, call the Edison Wetlands Association at 732 321 1300. See also yesterday's article in My Central Jersey.

Photo: Bob Spiegel at the Akzo site that is poisoning the Raritan River and families' recreation areas.

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