There is worry along the water in a New Jersey community after rock-like chunks of hazardous material washed ashore, just a few miles from a superfund site.
The large, oddly shaped chunks spotted near the water in Keyport may look similar to rocks, but they could potentially be much more harmful.
Greg Remaud, the conservation director at NY/NJ Baykeeper, found the material on a routine inspection at the beach and sent them out for testing. They tested positive for lead, and Remaud believes the objects are chunks of slag, a waste byproduct of lead production.
"We wanted to make sure before ringing alarm bells it contained lead, and it does. Those results came in Tuesday evening, we alerted all kinds of agencies," he said.
Remaud believes the chunks came from a seawall built with contaminated lead. The source of the pieces is unknown, though the Raritan Bay Slag superfund site — where toxic metals are known to be present — is not far away in Laurence Harbor. That site is slated for remediation soon, but Remaud wonders if that plan may need to be expediated.
"It’s a neurotoxin, its not good," he told someone walking their dog.
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But Remaud said no one has been out to examine the hundreds and hundreds of chunks of debris littering the south end of the beach, and there’s not even a sign warning people to avoid what he says is public health threat.
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"If you ingest the lead, that’s when its really dangerous. Or if you're fishing and eating fish that may have ingested the lead, or the crabs," said Remaud.
One couple brought their grandkids to go fishing along the shore of Raritan Bay Thursday morning. Just a few yards away from the shallow waters, a huge pile of what the baykeeper said is slag sat atop the sand, which he called a public health threat. After learning of that, the grandfather told his wife to get the kids out of the water. The couple said they won't be eating any fish they catch.
Congressman Frank Pallone represents the part of the Jersey Shore where the chunks were found.
"The concern is that the Raritan slag site ... we never had a situation where pieces of the seawall, with the lead for example, were breaking off," said Pallone. "The concern always was the lead would seep into the water, not that the pieces would break off. So this is very disconcerting. If in fact that it’s happening, it is a whole new level of concern.”
Pallone said he spoke to the regional director of the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday, who told him they would prioritize the testing to see if the lead is coming from the superfund site.
"If it does, it would have a whole new level of prioritizing containment from the water side. Even if it’s not coming from there, then where is it coming from? We have to contain it, we can’t let people be exposed to it. This could open a whole new can of worms," Pallone said.
It will be up to the federal EPA to post warning signs or cordon off the section of the beach.
