"Newark Homes Not So Sweet With Toxic Vapors Seeping Inside"

"This is a column about a horror show you pray will never happen to you.

You buy a house you can finally afford in a new neighborhood of 19 two-family homes in Newark’s Ironbound. Manufacturers Place, as the street is called, is not the prettiest of places, adjacent to a truck and scrap metal junkyard and railroad tracks.

The street is too narrow for kids to go out and play soccer or tag. There are no stoops, either, for families to sit out front. It’s just a street with homes, but, hey, at least you have your own home and the pride that goes with being able to say that.

Then out of the blue in January state officials tell you they’re sorry but it turns out that for at least 12 years you have lived on top of contaminated groundwater filled with toxic vapors that can be lethal."

Barry Carter reports for the Newark Star-Ledger April 13, 2014.