TOMS RIVER-the Former Ciba-Geigy Superfund site could soon be home to a massive solar farm that could generate up to 35 megawatts of electricity.

Toms river Merchant Solar LLC plans to lease about 166 acres of property on the Superfund site from BASF – which acquired the land from Ciba in 2009 – and install solar panels on the land.

The project will be the largest solar field in new Jersey, according to the state utilities Board.

The Washington, D.C.-based solar energy industry Association says 1 megawatt of solar power is enough to power an average of about 190 homes.

Story: Toms river once hoped to buy Ciba property for $15 million

Tax appeal: Ciba-Geigy property tax appeal could cost Toms river taxpayers millions

Toms river merchant solar is expected to submit a solar farm proposal to the planning Board on September 18. The planning Board meeting begins at 6:00 p.m. and takes place in the L. A. Hirshblond conference room on the second floor of city hall, 33 Washington St.

Check out what else is happening in the city on our Toms River page, and make sure you don’t miss a thing by buying a digital subscription to APP.com today.

Ground-based solar panels will be installed in areas of the 1,200-acre site that have been used for industrial dye Ciba operations. The massive Ciba site is located off highway 37, near the garden state Parkway, with its main entrance now at Oak ridge Parkway.

Toms River Merchant Solar is a subsidiary of EDF Renewables, a company that has developed dozens of solar projects across the country, including several in new Jersey. EDF’s other renewable energy projects in the state include the Wayshore Recycling solar project in the Keasbey section of Woodbridge, and the Matrix solar project in Perth Amboy, developed as part of the PSE

Township planner David G. Roberts said that because the former Ciba property is a Superfund site, the planning Board has limited jurisdiction over activities there. The site is controlled by the Federal environmental protection Agency and the State Department of environmental protection.

Toms river cancer cluster: will environmental kickbacks bring back “toxic” city?

Linda L. Gillick, who chairs the Civic action Committee on childhood cancer cluster, said while the Committee has not endorsed the solar area proposal, the group believes “it is a step in the right direction to help the environment.”

Gillick has chaired the Committee since 1996, when it was formed to investigate the elevated levels of childhood cancer that plagued Toms river in the mid-to-late 1990s. Gillick and other residents and activists have long expressed concern about any potential development on the Ciba site.

Ciba solar project received conditional approval earlier this year from the state Board of public utilities. It will be built on the “brown field” site, a property that has been previously contaminated.

A similar solar farm has been operating for several years on the site of a former French landfill in Brique.

The Ciba property is still zoned for industrial use and the solar field project does not require any deviation from the township’s land use codes. Roberts said installing solar panels would require the removal of some “isolated tree stands” near the solar field.

Shop online? This is how to reduce environmental damage

The EPA has been overseeing the cleanup at the Ciba site since the property was placed on the Federal Superfund list in 1982. Ciba is one of two Superfund sites in Toms river; the other is Reich farm, located off highway 9 in the pleasant plains area of the city.

More than 10 billion gallons of contaminated groundwater have been extracted from the ground, treated to remove contaminants and then recharged to the ground in the northeast corner of the property, according to the EPA. Groundwater treatment is expected to continue for at least another 20 years.

Read more about the cleanup in the video above this story.

Ciba-Geigy, was originally called Toms River Chemical Co., earned millions of pounds of industrial dyes and ran from 1952 until all manufacturing operations ceased in 1996. 

Climate change: new Jersey warming faster than most of the country

Is your new shore home going underwater? More built on flood-prone land after sandy

Ciba has spent more than $300 million on groundwater cleanup and toxic waste cleanup on its property, and has spent millions to settle three lawsuits related to toxic waste on its land and contaminated groundwater it caused.

In 1999, a study conducted in the States and at the Federal level found that some residents of the Toms river were exposed to chemical pollutants from the site that leached into private wells and the drinking water system decades ago. 

The same study found that the site no longer poses an environmental threat because contaminated wells have been sealed and groundwater is being treated.

Most of the buildings that housed the operations for the manufacture of dye Siba, was destroyed. The sprawling property – larger than the city of Hoboken – is mostly vacant, except for two to three employees who oversee a largely automated groundwater pollution cleanup.

Read more renovation: Toms river battered buildings could become a restaurant in the city center, Parking deck

The cleanup of toxic soil and the removal of thousands of waste-filled drums was completed in 2010, and BASF completed the construction of a more efficient groundwater treatment system in 2013, and began operation in 2014.

About 200 homes are located to the North of the property, and another 250 to the South. West Dover primary school is adjacent to the scene.

Gene Mickle covers Toms river and several other ocean County towns, and has written about local government and politics on the Jersey shore for nearly 35 years. A finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer prize for public service, she is also passionate about the legendary shore music scene. Contact: @jeanmikle, 732-643-4050, [email protected].