note FRom StoRYWoRKS aRtiStic DiRectoR | StoryWorks creates immediate arti sti c responses to some of the most controversial and challenging issues our society faces. We take investi gati ve journalism, commission playwrights to plays based on the stories and then produce shows both in the San Francisco Bay Area, where The Center for Investi gati ve Reporti ng is based, and in the communiti es most directly aff ected by the issues. Over the past three years, StoryWorks has commissioned and produced seven producti ons, toured in aff ected communiti es, translated and performed work in Spanish, and challenged theater and journalism to work in innovati ve ways to represent our world and the immediate issues we confront. It is an honor to co-present with George Street Playhouse the world premiere of “Terra Incognita.” For StoryWorks’ inaugural season in 2013, we commissioned two plays based on CIR’s reporti ng: “A Guide to the Aft ermath,” about female veterans suff ering from military sex- ual trauma and post-traumati c stress disorder, and “Headlock,” which confronted abuse in California’s adult care faciliti es. What began as an experiment to bring journalism to the stage and give voice to the marginalized and oppressed became a challenge to both our community as a whole and the arti sts who work with us to tell these stories. Our process evolved as we worked; this had never been done before. Our guiding principles were to proceed with integrity, following best journalism practi ces, and to allow arti sti c expres- sion and the creati ve process to thrive. Once we began rehearsals, it became clear that we wanted to give communiti es an op- portunity to parti cipate, ask questi ons, tell their story and listen to those directly aff ected by our reporti ng. Aft er each performance, the journalists, arti sts and community members join the audience for a conversati on about the play and its themes. As we delve into the facts of the investi gati on and the personal stories of those involved, these conversati ons oft en are as long as the play itself. “Terra Incognita,” created in collaborati on with George Street Playhouse, is the seventh StoryWorks iterati on. “StoryWorks gets to the emoti onal truth of investi gati ve journalism, based on facts and allowing for arti sti c explorati on, we delve into the personal stories behind the headlines and create dialogue through theater.” Jennifer Welch Arti sti c Director, StoryWorks from the Center for Investi gati ve Reporti ng

GeoRGe StReet plaYHoUSe | In the 42 years since its founding, George Street Play- house has become a nati onally recognized theatre, presenti ng an acclaimed mainstage season while providing an arti sti c home for established and emerging theatre arti sts. Its leadership consists of Arti sti c Director David Saint, Resident Arti sti c Director Michael Mastro and Managing Director Kelly Ryman. Founded in 1974, the Playhouse has been well represented by numerous producti ons both on and off -Broadway, including the Out- er Criti cs’ Circle Best Musical Award-winner The Toxic Avenger; the Outer Criti cs Cir- cle, Drama Desk and Drama League nominated producti on of The Spitfi re Grill; and the Broadway hit and Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning play by , which was developed at GSP during the 1999 Next Stage Series of new plays. In 2015, George Street Playhouse was represented by two producti ons in New York: the Broadway producti on of It Shoulda Been You, and Joe DiPietro’s Clever Litt le Lies, which opened off -Broad- way in October. Both shows received their premieres at the Playhouse. In additi on to its mainstage season, GSP’s Touring Educati onal Theatre features three issue-oriented pro- ducti ons that are seen by more than 40,000 students annually. George Street Playhouse programming is made possible in part by funds from the State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the Nati onal Endowment for the Arts. TERRA INCOGNITA Written by R.N. Sandberg Directed by Jim Jack

CAST Joseph...... Di Shawn Gandy Lena...... Kym Gomes The Expert...... Frances Pu Flashlight, Crane, and others...... David Seamon Montag, Lawman, and others...... Matt Baguth

PRODUCTION TEAM Scenic Design/Properties Master...... Frank J. Giamella Costume Design...... Diana Gundacker Lighting Design...... Tommy Williamson Sound Design...... Ted Crimy Stage Manager...... Erica Lee Production Manager...... Megan Cherry Props Assistant...... Helen Tewksbury Artistic Director...... Jennifer Welch

“Terra Incognita” was made possible with the generous support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

Additional support provided by the Merrill G. and Emita E. Hastings Foundation.

“Terra Incognita” was commissioned by George Street Playhouse and The Center for Investigative Reporting David Saint, Artistic Director - George Street Playhouse Michael Mastro, Resident Artistic Director - George Street Playhouse Kelly Ryman, Managing Director - George Street Playhouse Jim Jack, Director of Education - George Street Playhouse Jennifer Welch, Artistic Director, StoryWorks

Special thanks to NJTV and NJTV News Executive Producer Phil Alongi and Correspon- dent Brenda Flanagan, Eliot and Anna Zigmund, Bob Harris, Jeff Entin, Passage Theatre Play Lab, Brad Vile, Franz Kafka CAST & CREATIVE TEAM Matt Baguth (Montag, Metal, Backhoe, Lawman)is a former student of Terra Incognita director Jim Jack at Brooklyn College, where Matt received his MFA in acting last June. This is Matt’s first professional stage production out of graduate school. He recently co-starred in episodes of Daredevil on Netflix and on Fox. Other credits include DeGuiche in Cyrano De Berger- ac (SUNY Suffolk), Macbeth in Macbeth (Queens College), and Hal Carter in Picnic (Brooklyn College).

Di Shawn Gandy (Joseph K) has performed in six off-off Broadway plays with The Afrikan Wom- en’s Repertory Theater Company in NY; Matthew McAllister’s Dublin Down Doubles in the New York Theater Festival; Our Town Now at George Street Playhouse; The New Jersey One-Minute Play Festival. Indie films: How to Get Rich in 13 Easy Steps and An Evening with Donald Kem- pinski. He’s studied acting at George Street Playhouse and at Woody King Jr.’s New Federal Theatre, NY. He is also a playwright and has directed several plays.

Kym Gomes (Lena) is a graduate of The Acting Studio and a member of Chelsea Repertory Com- pany in NYC. She was most recently seen in the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theater production of The Rant. Other roles include Lorraine in A Lie Of The Mind, Lily in Crumbs From The Table Of Joy, Maria in Twelfth Night and April Greene inHot L. Baltimore. Directing credits for Chelsea Rep LAB include Last Chance Texaco, Ex-Miss Copper Queen and Woodstown. Kym produced and directed the award-winning NY International Fringe Festival production of By Hands Un- known, a collection of short plays from the 1800s on lynching in America.

Frances Pu (The Expert) is thankful to the New Jersey School for the Dramatic Arts (NJSDA), Alan (actor-husband), and family/friends for the training and support! Other stage credits: OMG, Chopsticks! (NYC off-off Broadway) and class showcases (NJSDA).

David Seamon (Flashlight, Crane, Township, Insurance, LSRP, App-Man, Fundman, NJDEP) is a professional playwright, composer, singer, actor, and pianist based out of New Brunswick, and is currently in his third year as a teaching artist at the George Street Playhouse. Previous roles include Leo Frank in Parade, The Balladeer/Lee Harvey Oswald in Assassins, and Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar. He is currently developing an original musical for CoLab Arts called The Elev- enth Hour, which will premiere in New Brunswick in June 2016. Later this year, he will appear inThe Kingdom of Vincent Grapelli at the Workshop Theatre in Manhattan.

R.N. Sandberg (Playwright) has won acclaim for his realistic depictions of contemporary life, imaginative treatments of social issues, and inventive adaptations of classic literature. Theaters that have presented his work include The Barrow Group, Barter Theatre, Dallas Children’s The- ater, Fulton Opera House, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Indiana Rep, Intiman Theatre, Kitchen Dog, La Mama, New York Music Theatre Festival, Open Eye, Providence Black Rep, Seattle Rep, Stage One: Louisville’s Children Theatre, Stages Repertory Theatre and Yale Cabaret. Awards and honors include the Bonderman National Playwriting Award for Can’t Believe It and the A.R.T. Discovering Justice Award for The Trials of the Massachusetts Servants. He is a member of the Philadelphia Dramatist Center and the Dramatists Guild and teaches playwriting, acting and dramatic literature at Princeton University.

Jim Jack (Director) recently directed My Name is Asher Lev at George Street Playhouse. Direct- ing credits for GSP’s Educational Tour and Community-based programs include: Our Town Now; Gabi Goes Green!; Austin the Unstoppable; IRL: in real life; New Kid; Peacemaker; and Break the Chains. Additional New York and regional credits include: The Road; Where is Home?;The Way It Was; K2 (Drama Logue Award for Outstanding Direction); Life and Limb; The Dumb Waiter; and The Zoo Story. Jim is the Director of Education and Outreach for George Street Playhouse.

Frank J. Giamella (Scenic Designer/Properties Master) is making his design debut on the Stage at George Street Playhouse with this production. During the producing season, he holds the title of Master Carpenter at the GSP Scene Shop and will be going into his third season on staff with the company this fall. A product of the Kean University Department of Theatre, many former designs are from a collegiate setting, including scenic designs for Intimate Apparel, 448 Psychosis, Macbeth, and The Odyssey (projection), as well as a number of assistant positions, charge scenic titles, and direction of Shepard’s Fool For Love.

Diana Gundacker (Costume Designer) is thrilled to be costume designer for Terra Incognita! Previous costume design credits include: Fiddler on the Roof at Red Bank Regional High School, Our Town at Princeton Day School, Our Town Now at George Street Playhouse, multiple events for National Dance Institute and George Street Playhouse’s Education Department.

Ted Crimy (Sound Designer) most recently designed sound for George Street Playhouse pro- ductions of The Whipping Man and Our Town, as well as additional design work on I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti and One of Your Biggest Fans. Before moving to New Jersey in 2011, Mr. Crimy designed sound for regional companies throughout the San Francisco Bay area, including Marin Theatre Company, The California Shakespeare Theatre, and the MFA program at A.C.T.

Tommy Williamson (Lighting Designer) is so happy to be designing at George Street for the first time on Terra Incognita. Tommy has worked at George Street for three seasons now, in which time he has held the title of, carpenter, lighting console operator, master electrician, and final- ly, lighting designer. Previously Tommy has designed such shows as 4:48 Psychosis, Sweeney Todd, The Odyssey, and Twelfth Night at Kean University, where he also acted as the Assistant Lighting Designer for four seasons with Premiere Stages. In 2012 Tommy began working as the Lighting Director for the touring dance competition Nuvo, traveling the country for six months before coming to New Brunswick and working at George Street.

Erica Leigh (Stage Manager) returns to George Street Playhouse after serving as stage manager for GSP’s Educational Touring Company during the 2015-16 season. She will also be a teaching artist at GSP’s Summer Theatre Academy in July. She has also served as an intern, assistant stage manager and tour manager at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. She is a graduate of Ramapo College and Raritan Valley Community College.

Jennifer Welch (Artistic Director, StoryWorks) is the director and co-creator of StoryWorks, a groundbreaking project launched in 2013 that transforms journalism into theater, from The Center for Investigative Reporting, one of the longest-running investigative nonprofit news out- lets in the country. Welch is a member of Tides Theatre, the executive producer of the Des Voix Festival and a founding member of the Howells Transmitter Arts Collaborative. She focuses on new play development and theater for impact, social conversation and change. Her directing credits include: “Alicia’s Miracle,” “This Is Home,” “Gruesome Playground Injuries,” “Sweet Bird of Youth,” “Waiting for Godot,” “The Little Foxes,” “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche,” “The Grapes of Wrath,” “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “Buried Child,” “The Trip to Bountiful,” “A View From the Bridge,” “The Rose Tattoo,” “The Night of the Iguana,” “Lysistrata,” “The Real Inspector Hound,” “Killer Joe” and StoryWorks. Her most recent stage credits include Margaret in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (winner of the 2014 Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle best actress award), part of a StoryWorks ensemble and Stella in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” She currently teaches acting for Tides The- atre in San Francisco.

Brenda Flanagan (Journalist) is a New Jersey transplant circa 1979 (from New Orleans, via Maine). She has won four Emmy® Awards for her work including an undercover investigati- veseries on racial profiling, consumer safety stories and team coverage for “Miracle on the Hud- son: Flight 1549,” among many other awards. She began her career in TV journalism at and moved to WWOR-TV, where she established the station’s Trenton Bureau and anchored public affairs programs. She covered the New Jersey Legislature and governor’s office (five governors) and national political conventions and has reported on mainstream New Jersey issues.

How New Jersey newsrooms are working together to expose local contamination

One year ago, The Center for Investigative Reporting convened the first in a series of discussions about how New Jersey news organizations could partner to investigate the state’s toxic legacy. Our goal was to demonstrate the power of collaboration, leveraging New Jersey’s collective journalistic might to explore a pressing issue in the public interest. Starting in July 2015, reporters and editors from newsrooms across the Garden State began digging into the impacts of pollution and contamination on local residents. The resulting series, “Dirty Little Secrets,” included a broad group of media partners, including New Jersey Public Radio/WNYC, WHYY, NJTV, NJ Spotlight, Jersey Shore Hurricane News, WBGO, New Brunswick Today and the Rutgers Department of Journalism and Media Studies. The Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University helped CIR coordinate the project, made possible with support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation to CIR.

After months of reporting, the collaboration published an expansive series of stories. You can find all the reporting on Dirty Little Secrets project website: toxicnj.com. Here’s a look at what the series uncovered: ● WNYC reporter Sarah Gonzalez, along with the station’s Data News Team analyzed and mapped records on contaminated sites across the state, drawing special attention to those that remain without a cleanup plan in place. ● NJ Spotlight reporter Scott Gurian revealed how industrial sites along New Jersey’s coast remain vulnerable to environmental disaster, three years after Hurricane Sandy. ● NJTV correspondent Brenda Flanagan investigated how leakage from underground oil and gas tanks is causing a nightmare for some homeowners and putting the environment at risk. ● WHYY reporter Joe Hernandez examined the impacts of New Jersey’s contentious de- cision to largely privatize the cleanup of toxic sites across the state. ● WBGO’s Bob Hennelly explored how toxic diesel emissions from trucks threatens res- idents’ health. There’s even more to the series, so visit toxicnj.com for all of the stories.

Inspired by the very reporting that fueled this collaboration, Terra Incognita is the latest production from our ongoing Dirty Little Secrets collaboration. With this performance, the Dirty Little Secrets team aims to bring this important reporting directly to New Jer- seyans, tapping into both the responsive nature of journalism and the live excitement of theater. Through this networked approach for investigative journalism, we hope to forge new models for collaboration not just among news organizations, but the communities they serve.

­Cole Goins The Center for Investigative Reporting TOXIC NJ They didn’t take it well.” PART ONE: THE COST OF “I was so angry,” said Ines Solomon, CONTAMINATION “and there was nothing I could do by Brenda Flanagan about it.”

This story is part of Dirty Little Secrets, Solomon is Zigmund’s neighbor and a series investigating New Jersey’s toxic says she watched in frustration as legacy, originally published on NJTV workers jacked up Zigmund’s house News. and excavated 250 tons of tainted soil between their two properties. “It was something out of a fantasy The remediation was prescribed by dream. A nightmare, almost, but it Triassic Technology, which was hired was really happening.” by his insurance company. They re- placed it with clean fill. The result? Eliot Zigmund’s lived with a fuel oil tank nightmare for six long years. His “There’s still oil,” he said. yard on Larch Avenue in suburban Teaneck is pocked with test wells That’s why monitoring wells still that monitor contaminants that are pepper both his property and the still flowing in groundwater beneath Solomon’s. They’re connected by his property. This despite clean-up specially heated conduits to a shed costs now pushing $600,000. The oil in Zigmund’s backyard. The conduits leaked from an old fuel tank once bur- lead to a filter that removes any resid- ied in his side yard. ual oil residue seeping from the water table into the monitoring wells. “We wanted the tank out of the ground. My oil service company told “This is basically a very sophisticat- me it was a ticking time bomb. Even ed, big Brita. That’s the way it was before they got the tank out of the explained to me: a big Brita filtration ground, they smelled and saw oil. system,” he said. They saw holes in the tank. It was bad,” Zigmund said. The costly hookup hasn’t logged two consecutive clean months in more And it got much worse. After the con- than a year of filtering. Zigmund’s tractors winched the tank up out of insurer has since hired a different the ground in July 2009, they tested company, Earthworks Environmen- the soil and discovered serious con- tal, to try a new technique: injecting tamination — a toxic plume of vola- the ground with hydrogen peroxide. tile organics that flowed beneath his That might cost another $100,000. neighbor’s home, as well. Meanwhile, Zigmund says, his insur- ance company figures it’s responsi- “The first couple of years of this, this ble for 82 percent of the estimated was really my house, my property. $600,000 bill. With the special state Their property was a construction fund that reimburses homeowners zone,” he said. When asked how his for fuel oil tank removal costs basi- neighbor’s reacted, he said, “Not well. cally broke, that would leave Zigmund on the hook for maybe $100,000. His The DEP said, “You can always find home’s appraised at only $300,000. a case that everything just doesn’t work right.” “The fact that they’re looking to clean up the state environmentally on the Assistant Commissioner Mark Pe- backs of single family homeowners is terson revealed that the DEP is now just patently absurd,” he said. “These re-examining cleanup standards for are expenses that no single family underground heating oil tanks. should be asked to endure.” “Homeowners wanted that, so they Next door, the Solomons feel similar- had a greater predictability of the en- ly trapped. Their insurance company’s vironmental professional doing the response? work, and some environmental pro- fessionals wanted that also. So, we’re “Our company will not touch this,” working on those regulations to re- Solomon said. “We’re stuck. We can’t vise them,” Peterson said. sell our property. We’ve asked if we can sell it. We cannot sell it until this “We feel so exhausted and burned out has been resolved.” by this whole process. I’m 70 years old. I’ve done all the correct things in And both families want to know life. I’ve brought kids up. I’ve always why they’re ultimately responsible been an honest person. I’m looking for what amounts to a toxic cleanup forward to my golden years here, and project, with impossibly high environ- all I’m doing is wondering whether I’m mental standards. going to have to abandon my house some day,” Zigmund said. “There’s no supervision from the New Jersey Department of Environmental NJTV News contacted the DEP about Protection. Never once in this six-year Zigmund’s case and a member of the period has a representative of DEP department was there at his home come out here and looked at property when peroxide treatments began. or told me that the job’s being done He’s hoping for success by next sum- correctly, the job is being done incor- mer, but Zigmund’s only one of tens rectly, we might’ve done it this way. of thousand of New Jersey residents You know, you’re on your own.” facing what some call a fuel oil tank epidemic. Zigmund’s contractor, Triassic Tech- nology, called this case an “unfor- PART TWO: The Hidden tunate circumstance” because the Liabilities of Hidden Oil house sits on “shallow bedrock, where the water table fluctuates Tanks between the rock and the soil. That makes it a difficult to clean up. There’s It’s caked in clay, but looks solid a lot more testing that has to be done, enough as the backhoe gently hoists it’s quite a bit more expensive. He Joan Fitzgerald’s 500-gallon fuel oil faces the same cleanup standards as tank out of the ground and into the a chemical factory.” air and deposits it on her front lawn in Clifton. But back in the excavated hole, dark residue stains the dirt and is notified whenever a critical level of the odor of petroleum is heavy above contamination is detected. They get a the pit. technical report when it’s remediated. Homeowners then get a letter certi- “I can smell it,” she said. fying that the cleanup is complete. They can’t sell the property without Environmental consultant Steve Rich it, he says, because banks won’t of- chops at the clay. Underneath holes fer mortgages on homes with under- appear in the 66-year-old steel. Day- ground oil tanks. light shines through some that are as big as dimes. The grant money New Jersey set aside to help compensate homeown- “I think, unfortunately, quite a bit of ers for fuel oil tank removal can’t keep oil might have come out,” Rich said. up with demand. There’s a waiting list with 1,700 names and the wait is four “I don’t know if I can talk to you right years long. now. I’m upset. I’ve been upset all week, and now this just puts the icing “Some are waiting it out,” Rich said. on the cake,” Fitzgerald said. “Some are walking away from their homes. They walk away from their Her tank is only one of an estimated homes. They just don’t have the eq- 100,000 fuel oil storage tanks buried uity in the property to ultimately underground across New Jersey. They clean or pay for remediation and get range in size from a couple hundred it cleaned up.” gallons to monsters that hold thou- sands of gallons. “They’re really like the Wild West. You know, you just have these tanks out Building inspector Earl Karlen says he there that invariably at some point in sees things like this quite a bit. “May- time that are going to leak,” said en- be 50 percent of the old tanks — they vironmental attorney Stu Lieberman. do have holes, they do leak. It had been in the ground a long time, that’s Lieberman points to New Jersey’s why.” 2005 Fuel Oil Tank Exclusion Poli- cy. It lets insurers opt out of paying Serious cases, where plumes of con- for damages from tank removal un- tamination ride groundwater chan- less homeowners can prove that oil nels far beyond the tank pits, require leaked before 2005. extreme excavation. “It’s a sin,” he said. “It’s really a crime “It was pretty bad, as you can see,” that the Division of Banking and In- said Ken Lombardo, of Lombardo En- surance allowed the insurance com- vironmental. “The house had to be panies in New Jersey to stop covering put on piles and beams to remediate these things.” the soil.” “The upshot is that there are many He figures cleanup will run $200,000. homeowners that don’t have cover- Insurance might cover half. The DEP age, and don’t know that they don’t have coverage,” Executive Vice Pres- “If they don’t want it they have to sign ident of the Fuel Merchants Associ- and certify a letter back to the insur- ation of New Jersey Eric DeGesero er that they don’t want it,” she said. said. “Otherwise the homeowners’ insur- ance company must provide it auto- New Jersey’s Fuel Merchants Associ- matically.” ation questions whether the lack of DEP oversight on oil tank removals “Homeowners insurance was intend- is driving up costs — especially if an ed to be there for the structure and insurer’s picking up part of the bill to for your belongings inside. It wasn’t fix those oil leaks that occurred more there to be a hazardous waste plan,” than a decade ago. Christopher Stark from the Insurance Council of NJ said. “The costs just seem to be a lot more in the insurance world than they The insurance lobby says those policy might otherwise need to be,” DeGe- changes and oil tank exclusions were sero said. very clear, and that insurers do not want to walk it all back a decade later. “The cost that they sometimes incur for these remediations, it’s really a “At the heart of this it’s an environ- market driven process. That’s why the mental issue,” said Stark. “It’s an issue costs become so extensive in some of maintenance, it’s an issue of war- cases,” said Kenneth Kloo, NJ DEP ranty and it’s an issue of making sure site remediation project director. that you’ve replaced these tanks.”

The DEP says that regulations permit Back in Clifton, Fitzgerald just heard industrial cleanups to leave behind that cleanup will cost $75,000 to re- small amounts of contaminants in the move 125 tons of contaminated dirt. soil. That isn’t the case for home sites, However, she does say that she un- where banks and buyers demand wittingly made a mistake by convert- much more stringent remediation ing to natural gas heat before she re- standards. moved the oil tank — and that voided her insurance policy. “There’s no ability to obtain a permit to leave any contamination behind,” She says she doesn’t think State Kloo said. Farm’s going to help her pay for it? “I just don’t think they will,” she said. To help save cleanup costs, the DEP’s now considering a controversial fix: State Farm told NJTV News that to relax some cleanup regulations for they’re actively working with Fitzger- homeowner tanks of less than 2,000 ald on her claim. Across New Jersey gallons. Meanwhile, Senator Jennifer underground storage tanks and con- Beck is sponsoring legislation that taminated soil from old gas stations would require insurance companies and dry cleaners lurk underground. to start offering fuel oil tank liability You might be living next to one and policies to homeowners, again. not even know it. Part Three: Cleanup derground storage tanks are an envi- Backlog ronmental ticking time bomb.” O’Malley is a clean water advocate Stand downwind and you can smell and he says that it’s treating families gasoline vapors rising from this like pollution detectors. sludge as it cascades out of the backhoe bucket. Workers just pulled “The canary in the coal mine are fam- three, 6,000-gallon gas tanks from ilies here in Trenton. That’s not the this former Valero station in Warren way to do environmental policy in County. They’re now testing what lies the state. Is there a problem? If you beneath for chemical contaminants. get sick — call us. That’s not how we It got added to the DEP’s list of toxic should be treating the public in New sites this October. Jersey,” he said.

You can’t miss this, but suppose you According to the DEP, “Remedies just see bare concrete, or a grassy lot, don’t always require all contamina- where decades-old service stations tion to be removed.” have closed. What you can’t see are the toxic, cancer-causing chemicals in They also say that it does permit taint- the ground soil. This mom of four can ed soil to remain in some commercial only remember. cleanup cases, and that constant monitoring at test wells is crucial for “It was a gas station there,” she said. that system to work while waiting for “When I was growing up it was a gas toxins to break down. station.” “A contaminated site isn’t a risk unless She didn’t want to show her face. She you have contamination present, and lives in a Trenton apartment house you also have an exposure pathway. near a canal. It’s a spot listed on the By cutting off the exposure pathway DEP’s roster of contaminated under- you’re really successfully remediated ground tank sites. She didn’t realize the site,” Kenneth Kloo from the NJ petrochemical vapors could pene- DEP, said. trate her basement walls. Workers did some digging here about a year Last year, New Jersey’s DEP logged ago and she claims that tenants in her 5,036 cleanups at underground stor- apartment complex got a disturbing age tank sites. They also discovered form letter. and added 4,928 new sites to the list — which now totals about 14,000. Of “We got a letter saying that there was those about 10,000 are assigned for some type of gas station that had cleanup to private engineers called some type of contaminated soil. If we LSRPs — Licensed Site Remediation had any symptoms of some type of Professionals. It’s the unassigned illness to contact the health depart- sites — and the still-undiscovered ment,” she said. ones — that worry them.

“I mean, I’m outraged” said Doug “You have sites out there that could O’Malley from Environment NJ. “Un- potentially be dangerous that aren’t being addressed,” William Groeling, accounted for about a third of New President of Site Remediation Group Jersey’s remediation backlog in 2011. said. “A lot of them, no one knows where the owner is, or they kind We’ve been working with municipali- of disappeared, the company went ties as a to put in a ticket initia- bankrupt — that’s probably the big- tive,” Mark Pedersen, Assistant Com- gest challenge, getting those sites. missioner for the DEP said. “We’ve And that’s something that the DEP is taken some initiative through the working on.” municipal courts and it’s worked out very well.” But even at assigned sites enforce- ment is the large problem. At an old But the DEP didn’t ticket Daibes, it Getty station in Closter, the gasoline blamed a paperwork error. Its records tanks got yanked in 1998 — but on- for the Trenton site were 18 months site wells show soil contaminated out-of-date. Critics says the depart- with toluene and other chemicals ment is too understaffed and over- still lies beneath the cracked asphalt. whelmed to enforce its own regula- Closter Environmental Commission- tions. er Paul MacDonald says nobody has ever tested the groundwater further This fall, Closter did ticket Daibes, but downhill. only for failing to maintain the dilapi- dated building. “Well, there’s definitely contamina- tion,” he said. “I’m not aware if the “They must’ve known there was a contamination has moved offsite.” pollution problem in the soil - under ground,” MacDonald said. “When That’s critical because the defunct they bought it they assumed the lia- station’s across the road from a work- bility.” ing farm, and about 450 yards from the Oradell Reservoir — a primary The Closter site’s LSRP Keith Gagnon drinking water source for more than claims that tests show the contamina- a million New Jersey residents. Unit- tion gradually abates with time. They ed Water Co. says it’s detected no have new plans to drill extra monitor- contamination. Daibes Enterprises ing wells across the road and closer bought the problematic site in 2009. to the reservoir next Spring. Sunoco owns the Trenton site, which hugs the “The owners had the property for Delaware Raritan Canal, and says it’s quite a while. I’m surprised it’s been also constantly monitoring test wells sitting like this for this amount of waiting for contaminants to weather time,” MacDonald said. out of the soils. It could take years.

But Daibes is a year and a half behind “We should clean up the problem and on their clean-up schedule, the DEP clean up the pollution, and not just says. In fact, it reports some 20 per- hope that someone doesn’t get sick,” cent of sites like these are non-com- O’Malley said. pliant. A federal EPA survey showed “recalcitrant responsible parties” Mom’s lived here five years and both her young sons are chronically ill. that if nobody is directly pushing for answers and for action, then the DEP “I don’t know,” she said. “It’s some- is struggling to come up with the re- thing that I’m going to bring up to sources to keep up with it with all of the pediatrician when I take them. It these sites. makes you wonder,” Williams: Sarah, what were some of That mom like so many people liv- the more surprising contaminated ing around these kinds of sites didn’t sites? know about the contamination or monitoring wells. Closter didn’t really Gonzalez: So WNYC’s Data News know what was happening with that team did an analysis of where New site either until we started making in- Jersey residents were in relation to all quiries. For the record the DEP calls of these sites. We found that 90 per- the Closter sites in compliance, even cent, 89 percent of New Jerseyians with those test results. live within a mile of some site that is contaminated, which I think in itself is The investigation into Toxic New Jer- pretty surprising. 1,400 of those sites, sey has been a collaboration with a so 1,400 of the 14,000 contaminated dozen content partners, public radio sites are not in any stage of the pro- stations and private news organiza- cess of ever getting it cleaned up. tions, both Rutgers and Montclair State universities, facilitated by the Williams: What did you learn about Center for Investigative Reporting. the communities who have contam- inated sites that need to be cleaned NJTV’s Mary Alice Williams inter- up? What did you learn about how views Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spot- much information they had? light’s Scott Gurian and WNYC and New Jersey Public Radio’s Sarah Gon- Gonzalez: So we, according to the zalez. state, the Department of Environ- mental Protection, initially they told Williams: Brenda, why isn’t the DEP us “Oh, these 1,400 or so sites are enforcing these requirements in the mostly abandoned properties.” They first place? told us abandoned gas stations and former dry cleaners. And we went Flanagan: By its own admission, the through the list and we knocked on DEP is confronting so many of these doors and we drove to all of those sites, Mary Alice, that it has to do tri- sites. And we found schools, and hos- age. As a matter of fact it told us this pitals, and police stations and nursing when we were there at a press avail- homes and all of these open, active ability. It says that it prioritizes, and businesses that have some kind of essentially focuses on sites that pose contamination and no plan in place to a direct health hazard. But I think that ever clean it up. And when I started forcing the regulations beyond that asking people, like Newark Schools, would require a lot more time and a which are run by the state of New lot more money, and that’s always in Jersey, or the Newark Police Depart- short supply down in Trenton. I think ment, you know, what is the situation with this site, there is some form of below the poverty line in New Jersey contamination there and there is no live within a mile of a site who has plan to clean it. They weren’t even no plan to clean it up. 80 percent of aware of it. The people who should be Latinos in New Jersey live near one of aware of those things were not aware these sites with no cleanup plan, and of it. So, there was really a commu- 75 percent of black residents, com- nication problem between the state pared to about 40 percent of white and the cities, and even developers residents. and the owners, of these sites. Williams: Scott, let’s go to you. You Williams: You interviewed people have personal experience with this — who were not aware that they had you inherited an old, abandoned gas breathing in toxic fumes from what station that your grandfather owned, kind of factory was it, a lighter fluid right? factory? Were you surprised by how long it took for state involvement? Gurian: Right, I have an interesting perspective on all of this reporting Gonzalez: I think what was surprising we have been doing. I think that about that case was that in 2013, the when the average person thinks of a DEP became aware that homes were contaminated site, they picture some built on the site of a former lighter former industrial facility that might fluid factory when homes were nev- have dumped chemicals into the river er supposed to be built there. It was out back years ago. What we found supposed to be like a parking struc- out is that many of these sites are ture, or something like that. So, they much smaller; former gas stations, became aware of it. They tested the former dry cleaners. As I know myself air and they found out there were through personal experience, a few these toxic fumes coming into peo- years back I inherited a former gas ple’s homes and they kind of put a station that my grandparents had run band-aid on the problem. What was back in the fifties and sixties. It had surprising though, was that, and I been sitting vacant for a number of mean, this is the nature of contam- decades, meanwhile there were still ination, contamination conditions gas tanks in the ground. There was an change, it spreads. We had moved a enormous remediation that we had block over and now the next, to the to deal with that we were told could block next to that and so residents cost over $600,000, which was more that I spoke with got letters from the money than we had. DEP just this past October saying that we have to start testing your air. Williams: And who was responsible?

Williams: Finally, what did you learn Gurian: That’s the question, the es- about race and class and the role that tate was my grandparents. they play in prioritizing clean up? Williams: $600,000 is more than the Gonzalez: So again, most of the state estate was worth. is located near a contaminated site, but 75 percent of people who live Gurian: Exactly. It’s a tricky situation and a lot of site owners are in this sit- so forth there. These are private in- uation. It’s more than the property’s dustries that run this site, and the worth, it’s more than they can afford, state, by and large, has left it up to what do they do about it? We were these private industries to come up lucky in the end. It took several years with solutions to mitigate their facil- of dealing with developers, with the ities from future storms. town, with the state, and we finally actually had a developer come and Williams: Private individuals are re- purchase our property because it sponsible for not allowing this type of happened to be in a good location seepage into the waterways. Is there where he could redevelop it. Many a need for a more comprehensive of these site owners are in much less plan under the circumstances? desirable areas, in blighted areas, in urban areas, and they don’t have that Gurian: That has been the criticism luxury of that happening. On top of from some environmentalists and that the state fund to clean up a lot planning experts that we spoke to. these leaking, underground storage They feel that if toxic chemicals seep tanks have been severely depleted out of any of these factories, these over the last several years. industrial facilities they affect the safety, the livelihoods, the health of Williams: What kind of damage was potentially thousands of people. The meted out by Sandy along New Jer- state has made such an effort to pro- sey’s industrial coast? tect the residential parts of the coast — building dunes, building sea walls Gurian: We looked at that, as well. and so forth. But, there hasn’t been Most of the focus after Sandy was that comprehensive approach to the the residential parts of the coast, the industrial parts of the coast. Jersey Shore, but there is a whole in- dustrial part of the coast, particularly Williams: Do you see it anytime in Northern Jersey, where you have soon? sewage treatment plants in New York and New Jersey that leak gallons of Gurian: There? It hasn’t been pro- raw sewage into the waterways. You posed yet. It’s hard to come up with have a lot of oil and gas facilities in solutions. These are facilities that the Arthur Kill between New Jersey are hundreds of acres in some cas- and Staten Island. es. There are no simple answers, but environmentalists say that the state Williams: Why haven’t those areas needs to at least start having the con- gotten the kind of attention that oth- servation. er parts of the coast got? This story is part of Dirty Little Secrets, Gurian: I think for several reasons. a series investigating New Jersey’s toxic Part of it is just that people don’t live legacy, originally published on NJTV News. there. This is a part of the coast that The full reports can be found on our website people don’t see. You really need to at njtvnews.org. get in a boat in order to see it. There’s not, you know, scenic walkways and About NJTV: New Jersey’s public television network, brings quality arts, education and pub- lic affairs programming to all 21 counties in New Jersey and its tri-state neighbors. NJTV presents acclaimed PBS series such as Nature, American Masters, Charlie Rose, and BBC World News America and children’s programs with diverse local programs including Amer- ican Songbook at NJPAC, On the Record with Michael Aron, Driving Jersey, NJDocs, Due Process, One-on-One with Steve Adubato, Classroom Close-Up NJ and State of the Arts. The network’s flagship news broadcast, NJTV News with Mary Alice Williams, features stories from across the Garden State utilizing the Agnes Varis NJTV Studio in Newark, its studios at the Trenton Statehouse and New Jersey City University and remote cameras at university content bureaus as well as media partners. The NJTV website offers online programs and free digital resources for educators. NJTV is comprised of WNJN, WNJS, WNJB and WNJT, which collectively broadcast throughout NJ. NJTV is operated under an agreement with the state of New Jersey by Public Media NJ, Inc. (PMNJ), a non-profit affiliate of WNET, parent company of award-winning New York public television stations THIRTEEN and WLIW21.

About CIR: The Center for Investigative Reporting is the nation’s first independent, multiplatform investigative reporting organization. Devoted to holding powerful interests accountable to the public trust, CIR creatively employs cutting-edge technology and innova- tive storytelling to reveal injustice, spark change at all levels of society and influence public dialogue on critical issues. With PRX, CIR co-produces the nationally distributed Reveal radio show and podcast, which features CIR’s reporting, as well as stories from public radio stations and a wide range of media partners, both nonprofit and commercial. CIR produces high-im- pact reporting across print, video, TV, radio and online platforms and is the recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, winner of 2013and 2015 Emmy Awards and a 2013 George Foster Peabody Award, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2012 (for local reporting) and 2013 (for public service). For more, visit revealnews.org. Find and follow Reveal on Twitter and Facebook.

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