How Toxic Dumping Led To Tragedy In A Small Seaside Town
Waste drums DreamstimeAn excerpt from Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation, a new book about a town in New Jersey devastated by industrial pollution The Fernicola brothers, Nick and Frank, grew up in the dirt cowboy subculture of the New Jersey waste industry. Their father, also named Nicholas (his son always went by "Nick" to distinguish them), operated a drum reconditioning business starting in the 1940s on Avenue L in the Ironbound section of Newark, across the street from a slaughterhouse. Even by the standards of that heavily industrialized neighborhood, it was an extraordinarily filthy way to make a living. Nicholas Fernicola specialized in cleaning, repainting, and reselling the 55-gallon steel drums that carried the foulest dregs North Jersey manufacturers could produce. There was no better place than Newark to be in that line of work. It was the "drum capital of the world," as Frank Fernicola would...