Eatontown Still Pushing To Remedy Wampum Lake Pollution

Eatontown officials are continuing their push to rid Wampum Lake of pollution.

Eatontown Mayor Gerald Tarantolo said during Wednesday night's council meeting that he recently met with Congressman Chris Smith (R-4) to discuss the pollution issue at the lake which is adjacent to Route 35.

"Had good, 1-hour discussion on Eatontown," Tarantolo said. "We discussed contamination and pollution of Wampum Lake"

Tarantolo said Smith was able to get financial backing to complete the remediation of a contaminated site in Wall Township, and that Smith would look into the issue Eatontown is facing with Wampum Lake

"As part of our meeting I presented the congressman with the information we are working on through the Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) and the groups that are in place," Tarantolo said. "Grants have been applied for and (I want to know) if the probability of us getting them are great or low."

"Smith was very reactive to our requests, we provided him with a packet of information," Tarantolo continued. "We've established a dialogue with our congressman on resolving the issue of the pollution of Wampum Lake.

The Army disagrees and concedes no responsibility for the lake, which is outside fort property.

One Eatontown resident, Brian Charnick, believes that with proper explanation, residents here will see that the Army is not the culprit. To that end, Charnick took the lead and drew up an application for a grant from the Department of Defense (DOD) to bring in a scientist to explain environmental data that the Army gathered about the area. Charnick is a member of RAB which is made up of citizens and Army officials, with the purpose of keeping residents in the loop about environmental clean-up at Fort Monmouth.