Woman sues over contaminated soil
School board member’s wife claims toxins at NBTHS caused cancer
BY JENNIFER AMATO
Staff Writer

Curtis Kristjanson

The wife of a North Brunswick Board of Education member has filed a lawsuit against the school board, the township, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson, claiming she was diagnosed with cancer as a result of the contamination found at the North Brunswick Township High School.

Phyllis Kristjanson, the wife of board member Curtis Kristjanson, claims that she developed cancer while she lived at Wood Avenue, which is just over one mile from the high school.

In a lawsuit filed on Dec. 9, she claimed that Bristol-Myers Squibb and J&J improperly produced, dumped and/or stored toxic chemicals on the high school site, therefore contaminating the soil and drinking water with arsenic and other toxins in the former North Brunswick landfill. She claimed that the pharmaceutical companies failed to properly warn residents of the contamination, causing her to contract cancer and other serious injuries, including past and future personal pain and lost wages.

“We prefer not to comment on pending legal matters, but we’re cooperating with North Brunswick Township and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to determine whether any waste from any Johnson & Johnson operation went to this site,” J&J spokesperson Marc Monseau said.

A representative from Bristol-Myers Squibb could not be reached for comment.

Currently a resident of Oak Road, less than a half-mile from her former residence at Wood Avenue, Phyllis Kristjanson also named the township, school board and fictitiously named defendants John Doe and J. Doe as being careless and negligent in allowing the chemicals to be dumped and/or stored at the site.

However, Mayor Francis “Mac” Womack said that no reports have proved that there was a substantial risk from any of the hazardous and nonhazardous chemicals, including lead, zinc, copper and arsenic, found by a contractor in 2003 during the $29.9 million school expansion and renovation project.

“What I basically want to indicate is that it has been the township’s understanding from representatives of experts mutually retained by the township and the Board of Education, the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Board of Health and Senior Services that there has continually not been, and is not now, a health risk to the general public nor the students at the high school,” he said.

However, Womack is concerned about the authoritative position Curtis Kristjanson holds as a school board member.

“My concern is that members of the public could perceive members of the BOE [Board of Education] or township as having some information contrary to what I have said are the health risks, and that is not the case. I sent [Superintendent] Robert Rimmer a letter to confirm all of the information regarding health and safety issues that the BOE has shared with us,” the mayor said.

“The township and myself personally and every member of the council are absolutely committed to keeping the public aware of the facts about the contamination and cleanup that is both good and bad,” he continued. “If we learn something, the

public can be sure we will make that information available to the public. In light of this suit, I’ve asked the administrator of the township Web site to make sure the town is posting all of the available information, limited only by materials that can’t be disclosed because of litigation.”

Although Curtis Kristjanson was originally named in the lawsuit for being compelled to expend large sums of money to cure his wife and being deprived of her services and her consortium, Rimmer said that he was inadvertently named in the lawsuit by his attorney, but has since been removed due to a conflict of interest.

“As with every lawsuit, the plaintiff is left to prove their case, but nothing we have ever been presented with has ever indicated that this poses a health risk under the circumstances,” Womack said. “As a lawyer, I expect that the truth will come out. Given what we know today, I don’t believe there will be liability by the township.”

The Kristjansons and their attorney, George Hendricks of New Brunswick, could not be reached for comment by press time.

The high school was originally constructed in 1971 due to the growing population of the township. At the time, the land below the high school foundation and footings was examined with no indication of contamination. Although the site is claimed to have never been part of a landfill, there was a presence of garbage, rubble and broken glass in the “oval” area in front of a soccer goal, according to a press release from the school board. Continued testing by the NJDEP, which investigated the incident, and the Middlesex County Department of Health reported there was no evidence of contamination.