a new legal fight is brewing over the site of one of New Jersey's most notorious environmental crimes this week the state finalized a settlement with the chemical company responsible for polluting groundwater in Toms River at the site of the former seba gaigi chemical plant it will compensate the state for damages to Natural Resources as a result of the chemical leaks and conserve the land for public use but environmentalists and residents of the town are calling it a raw deal senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports I'm I'm angry I'm here to tell you that because we need help to to take this to the finish line now residents want a better deal for decades folks in Toms River have demanded Justice from siba gaigi the chemical company that dumped 47 000 barrels of Industrial Waste into an unlined pit leaching a plume of carcinogens into the groundwater people here have endured pollution cancer clusters and litigation for years the mayor says the nightmare continues it's been an open wound in Toms River for 60 years and all njdep has done has poured salt into that wound last night he spoke at a meeting of the Grassroots group save Barnegat Bay which rejected the dep's recent settlement of a 2007 lawsuit over destruction of Natural Resources complaining the dep cut a deal without Community input it's just another slap in the face to all of you all of us and I'm just sick and tired of the arrogance and the dismissive attitude of a department that's supposed to be protecting us the deal worked out between the dep and BASF which acquired the site in 2009 requires the company to pay a half million dollars in natural resource damages preserve a thousand acres in perpetuity and build and maintain nine Public Access projects including a nature center and Boardwalk for 20 years it will also continue to clean up the plume of toxic groundwater that contaminated public Wells the mayor called the deal woefully inadequate it obviously is a sweetheart deal for the for the chemical company the largest Chemical Company in the world and once again Toms River and the Ocean County residents get the shaft I can understand uh their uh dissatisfaction with elements of of this settlement the dep commissioner says they came to this agreement after doing what he called the calculus of litigation risk there may be insufficient proofs to demonstrate the extent of natural resource injury and so I we have to carefully balance what is provable in court save Barnegat Bayes hired a legal team specializing in natural resource cases they claim this deal doesn't compensate for injury to the underground aquifer and other environmental damages that the dep is orchestrating a publicity Ploy they're trying to convince this community that what they're doing is a good thing where I mean we're clearly not buying into that story it's it's not surprising it's so disheartening Toms River resident Joe Cochran's daughter endured cancer a neuroblastoma they're one of more than 60 families impacted by a cancer cluster here who reached a multi-million dollar settlement with the company although it accepted no blame but Katrin wants the environment made whole every time you think you make a breakthrough with with the government agencies and you think they're going to be on your side finally or get things done the way that they say they're going to do it they don't shave Barnegat Bay says they're likely headed for a court battle I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight news [Music] [Music]