WEST WINDSOR — Township Council is crafting a resolution calling for toxic materials at a site off Southfield Road to be removed before construction commences, following testimony Monday from state regulators and the developer of the property where the contaminated fill was dumped.

   ”If you can bring it in with 4,500 dump trucks, then you can take it out with 4,500 dump trucks,” said Council President Will Anklowitz to representatives of the developer, Edgewood Properties of Piscataway.

   The developer inadvertently contaminated the site after purchasing thousands of cubic yards of PCB-laden materials from the old Ford Motor Co. plant in Edison in order to raise the site to grade. A total of 65,000 cubic yards of fill was used, including about 2,500 cubic yards of contaminated materials.

   ”Look at our great West Windsor seal,” said Councilwoman Linda Geevers, referring to agricultural imagery on the township seal in council chambers. “In West Windsor we value the earth, and that land was pure at one time, and now it’s not.”

   Contrary to council wishes, state Department of Environmental Protection officials said Monday they would recommend the entire 15-acre property — which will be the site of a future daycare center and a drug store — be capped, with the daycare center area covered with at least two-feet of clean materials.

   The property would also be deed-restricted to ensure future owners would comply with special regulations and other stipulations of a DEP-restricted property, DEP spokesman John Kosher said.

   DEP Bureau Chief Stephen Maybury said the capping plan was appropriate after testing revealed the majority of the site to be within safe levels of PCBs for commercial usage except for a few “hotspots,” which should be excavated and mixed around the site.

   ”The PCB levels at this site are very low compared to some other sites we have seen,” Mr. Mayberry said.

   In high enough concentrations not found anywhere on the Southfield Road site, PCBs can cause acne-like skin conditions in adults and neurobehavioral and immunological changes in children.

   Edgewood Properties officials present at the meeting said they would only do what was required of them by the DEP, which currently does not include any plans for removing the contaminated materials.

   ”Sure it comes down to business,” said Edgewood Corporate Counsel John Verlaque. “We were ready to start building when we found the contamination, and we will follow the guidelines of the DEP and that is what we are prepared to do.”

   Mr. Verlaque said the delay in the providing of the services the site could provide to the community and the disturbance removing the materials would cause — estimated by the DEP officials at six months of activity — were the reasons for preferring to cap the site.

   Mr. Anklowitz said that for him, testimony from future daycare owner Geetha Ranasinghe over the contamination’s effect on business really struck a chord.

   He said he believed the contamination will irreparably harm the daycare and the other businesses that could be at the site.

   ”The delay in removing the materials maybe be detrimental to providing services to West Windsor, but now would be the easiest time to remove them,” Mr. Anklowitz said. “The removal could prevent something from happening down the road, and preserve the reputation of the site.”

   Councilman George Borek expressed concern about the presence of a daycare center on the site.

   ”You are going to have a child daycare center, but does anyone honestly think people will bring their kids there?” Mr. Borek said.

   Councilman Charles Morgan said it would be up to Edgewood to make a decision about how to address the problem.

   ”The materials can be taken out, and it is just a question of whether they will do it,” said Mr. Morgan. “I don’t believe the township can make them remove it.”

   Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said he would like to see Edgewood Properties completely remove one of the contamination “hotspots” on the site, which coincidentally sits at the planned location of the daycare.

   But the rest of the site was at contamination levels so low that similar readings could probably be found on many construction sites, so the plan to cap the site and deed-restrict the property was appropriate, according to Mayor Hsueh, who is retired from the DEP.

   The DEP first discovered the problem in late 2005, but didn’t inform West Windsor officials until March of 2006.