The draft report was submitted to DEP Commissioner Bob Shinn this week and will be presented to the public at a meeting on Thursday, Jan. 21, at 7 p.m. in the Burlington Township Municipal Building. Shinn will attend the meeting and review public comment prior to incorporating the recommendations to guide DEP policy.
New Jersey is the first state to take action to control exposure from historic pesticide use.
Shinn created the task force in April 1997 after residual pesticide contamination was found in soil at a housing development built on a former orchard in Burlington Township. DEP supervised remediation of that site which presented new issues to be addressed for future guidelines at other potentially contaminated properties. DEP estimates that at least 5 percent of the state's acreage may be impacted by the historical use of pesticides. Research indicates that similar problems exist in other states and countries from use of agricultural pesticides such as arsenic, lead, DDT and Dieldrin prior to the 1970s. Arsenic and lead are two naturally-occurring metals and it is often difficult to distinguish between concentrations from the application of pesticides and those that occur naturally.