TOMS RIVER - Is there a secret plan to build 6,400 homes on the old Ciba-Geigy Corp. Superfund site?

That's the claim being circulated on social media by a Facebook page and website called the Jersey Shore Independent, which is connected to the mayoral campaign of Toms River Councilman Daniel T. Rodrick, who is competing in the June 4 GOP primary against fellow Councilman Maurice B. "Mo" Hill Jr. and former Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato.

"6,400 Homes on Ciba-Geigy: Coronato & Gilmore Plan City Within a City," the Independent's headline blares, referring to Coronato and former Ocean County GOP Chairman George R. Gilmore. Gilmore resigned from the chairman's post last month after a federal jury convicted him of three tax-related charges.

Township Administrator Donald Guardian said he is unaware of any plans to develop the former Ciba site, now owned by BASF, for housing.

For one thing, the entire 1,200-plus-acre site is still under the jurisdiction of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and groundwater clean-up at the property is expected to continue for at least 20 more years.

Related:Ciba-Geigy Superfund site in Toms River now an open-air classroom

Decades to clean:Toms River Ciba-Geigy Superfund site will take decades to clean

The EPA would have to permit a portion of the property to be de-listed from the federal Superfund registry in order for any development to occur.

The township also is embroiled in a lengthy tax appeal dispute with BASF that is not expected to be resolved until December.

"In the master plan, this property falls under industrial development only. No one has approached the township with regards to buying or developing," Guardian said. "I understand that BASF had an RFP (request for proposals) to developers several years ago about potential development and that six developers responded. But no action was taken, so it appears that the property owner was just testing the waters if they chose to sell."

Rodrick, however, insists that the 6,400 units mentioned in the article is an accurate description of the potential for development of the BASF property. The land, located not far from the Garden State Parkway, is the largest undeveloped parcel in Toms River.

For proof, Rodrick pointed to an email sent by Guardian in which the administrator wrote "we connected Jack to BASF." Jack is developer Jack Morris, a sometimes client of Gilmore's. Morris' Edgewood Properties has developed housing and mixed-use projects throughout the state.

Secret safe held $3.5 million:Asbury Park secret safe had $3.5M in gold certificates; now who gets them?

Gabrielle Run, a complex of more than 300 apartments and townhouses located off Route 9 in North Dover, is one of Morris' projects in the area.

"It is absolutely the truth that Don Guardian said that they are connecting Jack Morris to BASF, and that Jack Morris wants to do mixed-use," Rodrick said. "There is an email chain that shows they want to develop 800 acres after the tax appeal is over."

The Asbury Park Park Press has dedicated itself to in-depth coverage of Toms River, from environmental issues and local politics to the latest sports and education stories. Please consider a subscription to help us continue bringing you all the most important Toms River news.

Rodrick said the 6,400-unit figure comes from estimating building on the site to six units per acre.

But Mayor Thomas F. Kelaher said Rodrick "has taken lying and fear-mongering to a new low. He has conjured up a story of massive residential development at the Ciba-Geigy site. This outrageous statement is more than mere political exaggeration: it is an outright lie that has resurrected painful memories of the cancer-cluster scare of the mid-1990s."

In a strongly worded statement, Kelaher said that "Rodrick's shameless deception shows nothing more than he has neither the character, competence nor conscience to serve in any elected capacity, let alone as mayor of Toms River."

"The truth is that there are not — and never have been — plans for the township of Toms River, or any other public or private entity, to develop the Ciba site for any purpose," Kelaher said in a prepared statement. "The property is zoned solely for industrial use, and federal and state environmental laws would preclude any such development."

Kelaher said he intends to "publicly confront" Rodrick at the May 28 Township Council meeting "about his deceitful statements" and demand that he divulge the source of his information.

Responding to Kelaher's harsh criticism, Rodrick said the mayor's "denial of their plans, in the face of email proof, is reminiscent of the lies residents were told in the past about Ciba-Geigy."

Guardian said that he had been contacted by "a developer" who asked about the previous request for proposals, but that he told the developer to contact BASF.

He said a company interested in building a solar farm on the BASF property also approached the township, but so far there have been no applications for permits for such a project.

Toms River's toxic legacy:Toms River cancer cluster: Will environmental rollbacks bring back 'toxic' town?

Guardian noted that considering the BASF site's history, any development will be met "with considerable angst."

History of pollution

Ciba-Geigy, initially called Toms River Chemical Co., made millions of pounds of industrial dyes and resins on its property from 1952 until all manufacturing operations ceased in 1996.

Once Ocean County's largest employer, the company would eventually become known as a notorious polluter.

EPA has been overseeing cleanup at the Ciba site since the 1,350-acre 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 Route 9 in the Pleasant Plains section of town.

More than 10 billion gallons of polluted groundwater has been extracted from the ground, treated to remove contaminants, and then recharged onto the ground in the property's northeast corner, according to EPA.

In 1992, two former Ciba executives and the corporation pleaded guilty to illegally dumping pollutants into two landfills on the company's property, and agreed to pay fines. All industrial operations on the site ceased in December 1996, the same year a groundwater treatment operation began there.

NJ's most polluted sites:Toxic Waste: New Jersey's 10 most polluted sites

Most of the buildings that housed Ciba's dye-making operations have been razed. The sprawling property — larger than the city of Hoboken — is mostly vacant, except for two to three employees who oversee the mostly automated cleanup of groundwater contamination.

Cleanup of toxic soil and the removal of thousands of waste-filled drums was finished in 2010, and BASF finished construction of a more efficient groundwater treatment system in 2013, and began operating it in 2014.

About 1.2 million gallons of polluted groundwater is pulled out of the ground for treatment daily by 27 wells. Watch the video above to see the groundwater treatment system in action.

Ciba spent more than $300 million to treat groundwater and clean up toxic waste on its property, and spent millions more to settle three lawsuits related to toxic waste on its land and the polluted groundwater that it caused.

More than 40,000 drums of waste were removed from the site, and about 350,000 cubic yards of tainted soil were treated.

A 1999 state and federal study determined that some Toms River residents had been exposed to chemical pollutants from the site that had leached into private wells and the public drinking water system decades ago.

Solar farm on Superfund site:Joint Base builds solar farm on Superfund site

The same study determined that the site no longer posed an environmental threat because polluted wells have been sealed and groundwater treatment is in place. About 200 homes are located north of the property, and another 250 to the south. The West Dover Elementary School is adjacent to the site.

Stephen K. Havlik, the senior remediation project manager for BASF, said the company will likely ask that the western portion of the property, about 480 acres, be removed from the Superfund designation.

That area "has not been found to have any disposal or industrial-related activity," Havlik said. The area could eventually be developed for commercial use, he said. Another portion of the property could be available for industrial development.

Deed restrictions would be placed on developable portions of the property that would prevent housing, schools or day care centers from being built, he said.

BASF will hold onto about 300 acres of land "in perpetuity," Havlik has said. That area will include the major disposal sites on the land.

BASF has been hosting educational programs for students on the Toms River property over the past couple of years; environmental science students from Manchester High School conducted a deer population survey on the property.

Check out photos from the environmental science program in the gallery below.

Motion-sensitive cameras used for the survey captured thousands of images of wildlife on the land, including gray and red foxes, coyotes, turkeys and raccoons, dozens of deer and many species of birds. The BASF site also includes 28 nesting boxes for Eastern Bluebirds.

Jean Mikle covers Toms River and several other Ocean County towns, and has been writing about local government and politics at the Jersey Shore for nearly 35 years. A finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in public service, she's also passionate about the Shore's storied music scene. Contact her: @jeanmikle, 732-643-4050, jmikle@gannettnj.com.