Neighbors in a New Jersey community gathered for a crisis meeting to get more information about a possible cancer cluster after more than 400 cases had been reported — including dozens on just one street. There was a moment of silence and a prayer Thursday evening for those in Keyport who had l ost their life to cancer or continue to suffer with it. It served as a time to reflect for the crowd who came together to demand the state do more toxic chemical testing on and around the old Aeromarine landfill site that many fear may have been seeping into the Raritan Bay and ground soil. “The DEP is telling us that, yeah, it’s contaminated up there still. The levels are high, not acceptable levels. But there’s still no pathway of those chemicals coming down to us,” said local resident Sal Liguori. Longtime residents like Liguori — who lost his son to cancer in 2022 and was recently diagnosed himself with leukemia and lymphoma — are desperate to know whether runoff from the site may be contributors to a possible cancer cluster that he says has grown to hundreds of cases in Keyport and Union Beach. Known carcinogens such as benzene and polychlorinated biphenyls were found on the property when it was last tested in 2010, but now the DEP says there’s no evidence the chemicals made it to people living here. “It’s about money. They don’t want to spend money. So they’re going to do everything they can to run away from it,” Liguori said. Lyla Henn, a 16-year-old cancer survivor, said she hopes nobody else has to go through what she endured when she battled a rare form of bone cancer at just 12 years old. “I’m 16. I shouldn’t be here. I should be doing normal high schooler things, but instead i’m here begging the state to pick up the slack here,” she said. Henn and her mother, Nicole, don’t know if the landfill is to blame. But they say state testing of chemicals in and around homes near the site would likely answer a lot of questions. “It makes you think and question and say, ‘What are we doing here?’ Like, let’s get the testing done. Let’s test beyond the footprint of this site and see what happens,” said Nicole Henn. People who live in the area say they will be reaching out to Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s office to force the state’s hand on expanded testing. In the meantime, an independent testing expert will reveal water and soil test results at another meeting on Aug. 7. “Listen, I hope I’m wrong. I don’t want to be right. I’m not even saying I’m right, right now, until we actually prove it ourselves like 1000%, but we’re doing enough work to lean toward that direction,” Liguori said before the meeting. “I want to be wrong. I want them to come and just test here themselves so they could just see it, if they’re that confident.” ...read more read less