Lawsuit seeks $1 million after fumes send smelly odor across South Jersey

EAST GREENWICH TWP., New Jersey (WPVI) -- A lawsuit has been filed by a South Jersey woman after smelly vapors filled the region last week.

Gina Slavin-Borgesi claims she and her neighbors were exposed to "dangerous levels of chemical vapors" during the August 10 incident.

The fumes came from a tanker at the TA Travel Center on Berkley Road in East Greenwich Township.

Officials stressed the powerful odor that emanated from a tanker truck were not the result of a chemical leak. It was a result of the chemical inside, Lubrizol 1389, overheating and expanding which triggered the release of a fail-safe mechanism to relieve the pressure.

In other words, the smell escaped but the chemical did not.

SEE ALSO: Officials hold town hall after tanker truck emits vapors, stench in South Jersey

"Our plan is to take care of this and get it out of your community as quickly and safely as possible," said Dave Edmundson, a representative for TransChem USA.

Officials took questions from concerned residents during a public hearing Tuesday night.

"I wanted to hear what they had to say because it is nerve-racking to have that smell and think, "I have animals. I have children. I live in this community. I smell how strong it is,'" said Eileen Hollingshead of East Greenwich.

Officials in Gloucester County, New Jersey say there is no danger from the fumes that blanketed parts of the area with a strong odor.

East Greenwich Township Mayor Dale Archer says TransChem USA, the chemical company at the center of this issue, has been very cooperative.

"TransChem has set up a mobile unit for folks that want to come directly to either put an insurance claim in or speak to someone from environmental health toxicologists," said Archer.

Air quality tests are ongoing, but the odor has long since lifted, with health officials describing the stench as a "nuisance odor" posing no risk to the public.

Neighbors Action News spoke with say they certainly hope that's true.

Philip Carrozza, who lives just a few blocks from where the tanker was parked, says, "What they are saying is that there isn't any long-term effects and it's OK, but who knows?"

TransChem USA and the Lubrizol Corporation are both named in the lawsuit which seeks $1 million in damages.