TOMS RIVER - Construction of New Jersey's largest solar farm on the former Ciba-Geigy Superfund site could start as early as the first quarter of 2020 after the township Planning Board unanimously approved the project Wednesday night.

Toms River Merchant Solar, a subsidiary of EDF Renewables, received board approval to construct a solar farm capable of generating up to 35 megawatts of electricity on land the company will lease for 40 years from BASF, which bought the property from Ciba in 2009.

Planning Board member John Solly, who has lived in Toms River for 55 years, said he remembers when the Ciba-Geigy chemical factory was the town's largest employer, as well as when the property became a Superfund site in 1982 after years of dumping contaminants on the land.

"It's been laying dormant," Solly said. "I think this is a positive use of the part of this property that's not contaminated."

Board member Laurie Huryk, who is also a township councilwoman, said she supports the project because it likely will ensure that no other development will occur on the property for the next four decades.

"I am happy to see that the use you are proposing will guarantee, as closely as you can guarantee, that there will be no people on this site," Huryk said.

The long history of contamination at the site was raised at a previous hearing by some residents who live nearby. They said they worried that work on the property could disturb contaminants.

Project Engineer Joseph Dietrich noted that all work on the site will be under the supervision of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The solar array will not be placed on or near a landfill on the property, which still holds buried drums, Dietrich said.

Toms River Merchant Solar has no plans to add security personnel to the property, but the solar array will be surrounded by an 8-foot fence that will supplement the fencing that already encloses the Ciba site. BASF has 24-hour security on the property, where groundwater clean-up is expected to continue for at least the next 20 years.

Representatives from EDF Renewables and the company's partner on the BASF site, PVOne, described the safety systems that will be in place at the property, including camera monitoring that will be installed to detect any problems with the solar panels, and to warn if there is a fire on the property.

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Their answers seemed to reassure board members, who had expressed concerns about fire safety at the property at a previous meeting.

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The solar farm, which would be built on 117 acres of the 1,200-acre property off Route 37, would contain 90,000 to 92,000 solar panels, making it the largest such installation in the state. In the video below, for comparison, you can see an aerial view of a 66-acre solar installation in Belvidere, which is currently New Jersey's largest.

Project engineer Joseph Dietrich said that 28 megawatts of the electricity — enough to power about 4,000 homes — generated by the solar field will be distributed into the PJM regional electrical grid through Jersey Central Power & Light lines.

Two megawatts of electricity will be used to power the pump and treat system that BASF operates on the site to remove contaminants from groundwater, Dietrich said.

Toms River Merchant Solar is seeking approval to use 5 megawatts of electricity — enough to power about 830 homes — to service customers enrolled in New Jersey's Community Solar Energy Pilot Program.

That program gives priority to local residents, and requires that 51% of the electricity generated be distributed to low- and moderate-income residents.

Construction on the solar array could begin by February or March if the project receives a state Coastal Area Facilities Act permit soon from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, according to Tom Leyden, a senior director of EDF Renewables. It's expected to take six to nine months to build the solar farm, he said.

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Construction vehicles will use the Route 37 entrance to the property and not the entrance off Oak Ridge Parkway. Sixty to 100 construction workers are expected to be employed building the project.

Toms River Merchant Solar has signed a 40-year lease with BASF for the sections of the 1,200-acre that were used for Ciba's industrial dye-making operations.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has been overseeing cleanup at the Ciba site since the property was placed on the federal Superfund list in 1982. The company ceased all operations at the Toms River plant in 1996.

Planning Board member David CIcozzi, who voted in favor of the project, said although the project is positive because it will create green energy not reliant on fossil fuels, it brings little direct benefit to Toms River.

Most of the electricity generated at the site will go into the grid for use in the regional grid, and won't be directly used by Toms River residents, CIcozzi said.

"For the benefit of Toms River, there is none," he said.

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Project Planner Brian Murphy argued that providing green energy "benefits everybody," and said the project will make Toms River a leader in the production of green energy.

"I think it's a good thing to finally have something positive happening on this site," said Murphy, who lives in Toms River.

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.

About 1.5 million gallons of groundwater are pumped up and treated each day. Groundwater clean-up is expected to continue for at least 20 more years. Learn more about the groundwater pump and treat system in the video above this story.

The former Ciba property is still under the jurisdiction of the EPA and the state DEP.

The solar farm application received conditional approval from the state Board of Public Utilities earlier this year, and Dietrich noted that all construction at the site will be supervised by EPA, to make sure it does not impact the ongoing groundwater clean-up.

Toms River Merchant Solar CAFRA permit application is open for public comment through today, according to DEP spokeswoman Caryn Shinske, and a decision on it will be made after the comment period concludes.

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.

Ciba's dye-making operations ceased in 1996. The company was once the county's largest employer, with more than 2,000 people working on the property.

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.

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.

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.

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.