By Sunayana Prabhu
KEYPORT – Fears of a possible cancer cluster linked to the closed Aeromarine landfill have gripped borough residents and renewed scrutiny from state and federal officials.
The latest alarm linking cancer cases to the property sounded in early April, with various social media comments alleging at least 41 cancer cases among residents living near the landfill. Twenty-eight of those cases were reported on First Street, very close to the old Aeromarine site, a shuttered landfill at the end of Walnut Street.
Neighbors cited cases of lymphoma, leukemia, pancreatic, liver, colon, breast, neck and throat cancers, among others. Jeff Jacobs, a physician and resident of Walnut Street, said his two dogs died from cancer and he knew at least eight other dogs nearby who died of the disease. Meredith MacBride, another Walnut Street resident who lives across from the former Aeromarine property, told The Two River Times this many cancer cases so close to the landfill is “not a coincidence.”
In 2010, a state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) investigation found toxic chemicals were leaching into the Raritan Bay from the landfill area. In 2024, evidence of arsenic and lead was found on the beach at the end of Walnut Street, various officials and residents confirmed.
However, there has been no scientific evidence so far linking the cancer cases to the chemicals at the Aeromarine property, Keyport Mayor Rose Araneo said.
“The borough is not aware of any studies that have established a link between any increase in cancer rates and this property,” Araneo said in a prepared statement at a packed borough council meeting April 21.
“But the absence of a confirmed link does not lessen the importance of a thorough, transparent review of the facts.”
On April 23, the DEP approved an environmental testing permit for Pacer Realty, the contract purchaser of the site, allowing the firm to conduct soil, landfill gas, groundwater and geotechnical investigations, the first step to possible remediation of the area.
A Toxic Legacy
Residents say they have been concerned about contamination from the closed landfill for decades. Worries about health risks have loomed over this small Bayshore town on the northern tip of Monmouth County.
The nearly 60-acre property, owned by Bay Ridge Realty Co. since 1966, was once home to Aeromarine, a seaplane builder and airline operating to the Caribbean. The plant closed in 1937. About two-thirds of the site is a defunct landfill with a half-mile of Raritan Bay shoreline, while the remaining third houses a small industrial park. The DEP ordered the landfill closed in 1979 due to longstanding operational and engineering issues, local officials said.
Since the landfill’s closure, “neither New Jersey DEP nor the property owners have done enough to remediate contamination on the property to take effective preventive actions to ensure the safety of Keyport citizens and the surrounding environment,” Araneo said.
Residents Ask, ‘Should We Move?’
At the April 21 council meeting, residents living near the site pleaded for immediate guidance on how to protect themselves while regulators and consultants work through a process that could take years.
“Should we move? Should we leave? Should we consider it?” resident John Schneider asked. “I don’t want to start raising an alarm, but I’m concerned,” said Schneider, who lives on First Street. “This is a big deal, I think, if it’s true. It’s a big friggin’ deal.”
Others questioned whether it was safe to garden, drink tap water or let children play outside. Some recounted multiple cancers in the same family or on the same block.
Greg Remaud, executive director of New York-New Jersey Baykeeper, has tracked the site for more than 20 years, he told the council. Past efforts to marry cleanup to private redevelopment faltered, he said, when developers walked away because of remediation costs. “Why are we allowing this landfill to keep leaching into the community when there is no remediation plan in sight?” he asked.
“This community has lived in the shadow of an improperly sealed toxic dump for over 50 years,” said Taylor McFarland, conservation program manager for the Sierra Club New Jersey chapter and a Keyport resident. According to MacFarland, the site has leached toxic waste and harmful chemicals, including benzene, PCBs, arsenic, lead and vinyl chloride – several of which are known carcinogens. MacFarland warned that the pollution has migrated into Raritan Bay and Chingarora Creek, which border Keyport’s waterfront.
“We can no longer allow corporate negligence to compromise the health of this community and Raritan Bay,” MacFarland said.
Bipartisan Pressure and
Federal Scrutiny
The former Aeromarine site has now drawn the bipartisan attention of state and federal elected officials.
U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-6) has contacted various state and federal agencies. State Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-13) has also been working with the DEP and the state health commissioner to find a solution.
In a release, Pallone urged the NJDEP, the New Jersey Department of Health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to take immediate steps to secure the site and investigate and evaluate cancer incidence data to determine whether a statistically significant cancer cluster exists.
According to Pallone, state inspections dating back to 1986 repeatedly identified environmental violations. The borough designated the Aeromarine site for redevelopment in 2005 and later obtained state Brownfields status due to contamination, but the landfill has never been fully remediated.
The first monetary penalty issued by the state DEP was in 2021 for $15,000. After 2024 reports of suspected lead found on the beach near the former Aeromarine landfill, the DEP issued additional penalties of approximately $300,000, which subsequently increased to nearly $900,000 in 2025. However, these penalties remain unpaid, and the owner has not properly closed or remediated the landfill.
Bay Ridge Realty, the owner, is scheduled for a hearing before an administrative law judge in June to challenge the fines and determine what must be paid.
“Corporate polluters have been let off the hook for too long in this area, and the community is paying the price, and I think this matter deserves the full attention and force of our public health and environmental agencies,” Pallone said in the April 28 release.
New Player,
Old Problem
At the April 21 meeting, Pacer Realty principal Lior Zamir told the council that Pacer’s “No. 1 goal” is to clean up the site and return it to safe, productive use. Pacer is the potential purchaser of the property. In an April 24 press release, Pacer said it has been working with the NJDEP and SESI Consulting Engineers since August 2025 to design a new round of environmental testing. Pacer explained that redevelopment is the only realistic way to fund a full closure and long-term environmental controls at the site.
Borough Takes Action
A deeper “investigation is underway,” Araneo said. “DEP will spearhead the data gathering. It won’t be quick, because there’s a lot of work to do, but it will be thorough.”
In the meantime, the borough council voted at the meeting to authorize up to $7,500 to re-engage Excel Environmental, the consulting firm that conducted investigations at the site in 2009 and 2010. Those reports were funded by the DEP and “laid out exactly what needed to be done at that time,” council member Robert Bergen said, but remediation of the landfill “never happened.”
The borough received a letter from the property owner informing it that a plan is nearly approved, though its details are unknown, Bergen said. He urged immediate DEP coordination through Excel to determine what landfill closure plans are on file and approved, and to begin engagement at once. “If the DEP advances a closure plan in the next two weeks that we don’t know about, we should have input,” he said.
A request for comments from the NJDEP was not returned by print time.
Chris Merkel of the Monmouth County Health Department is serving as local outreach liaison, coordinating with Kate McGreevey at the New Jersey Department of Health. The town’s main state contact is Rosie Driscoll, director of legislative affairs and constituent services. The next council meeting is May 5.
The article originally appeared in the April 30 – May 6, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
