Cause of rising PCBs in creek is a mystery Environmental officials to discuss matter at council meeting tonight BY JAY BODAS Staff Writer The federal Environmental Protection Agency doesn't know why PCB (polychlorinated biophenyl) levels have risen in the Edmonds Creek area near the Kin-Buc Landfill Superfund site over the past few years. "We do know we are finding elevated PCB levels, though it is not consistent year after year," EPA spokesman Ben Barry said. "We monitor that area consistently, and it is unclear what is causing the elevated levels. There is no way to pinpoint at this time how that is happening. " Barry said that those who go into the area should take precautions to limit their risks. "We want to make sure that anyone who does work in the area is trained properly and knows what they are getting into," he said. However, the average levels of PCBs found in the creek area remain below the limit of 5 parts per million (ppm), which is the maximum level of PCBs the EPA allows for the outdoor environment, Barry said. Representatives from the EPA, the Clean Land Fund (CLF), and Rutgers University will speak at tonight's Township Council meeting about the Edmonds Creek area. Expected to speak are CLF President Bill Patt; John Prince, chief of the EPA's central New Jersey Remediation Section and a Superfund supervisor; and Steven Handel, director of the Center for Urban Restoration Ecology at Rutgers University. Rutgers University has partnered with CLF for its Open Space Land Management Plan, in which graduate students will survey plant and animal life in the creek area, Patt has said. They will respond to comments made at an Oct. 25 council meeting by Edison Wetlands Association Executive Director Robert Spiegel about the elevated PCB levels measured around Edmonds Creek. Spiegel and environmental engineer Richard Chapin said at that meeting that PCB concentrations there have risen over the past 10 years, based on their review of federal reports on the creek area. "While I am encouraged by the efforts to restore a portion of the long-neglected Raritan River, I am deeply concerned that Rutgers University may be unwittingly sending its students into a contaminated area around both Kin-Buc Superfund Site and the unremediated Edison landfill," Spiegel said in an Oct. 25 letter to Steven Handel. But Patt said last week that restoration efforts are not part of the students' work. "They are evaluating the flora and fauna of the area," Patt said. "We are not talking about any restoration efforts at this juncture. We also have a letter from the EPA that states that the site is clean to their standards." CLF owns 100 acres of the approximately 250-acre Kin-Buc landfill area, and Edison Township owns the rest, Patt said. Those 100 acres should soon be donated to Edison, he said. "We have already agreed to turn over the 100 acres to the township, but the township has some issues with environmental liability, which the township is working out with the EPA," Patt said. "As soon as that is resolved, we will transfer the title to the 100 acres to the township." Patt deferred to the EPA when he was asked to respond to Spiegel's concerns. "Our position is that the Edison Wetlands has their opinion, and we respect their right to have an opinion, though we think the facts do not necessarily support their opinion," Patt said. "All we want to do is to present the facts as we know them and as the EPA presented them to us. The EPA has given Rutgers a green light as well as to us."