PASSAIC, N.J. (WCBS 880) — The effort to clean out cancer-causing chemicals from the Passaic River will be expanded to include nearly 9 more miles of waterway in Bergen, Passaic and Essex counties, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday.
The expansion will build on an already established plan to cleanup 8.3 upper miles of the river.
While the plan to clean up all 17 miles of the lower Passaic River is still years away, the EPA said the plan will eliminate a number of toxins affecting fish, wildlife and communities – including mercury, copper, lead and pesticides.
“[It’s] really the greatest hits of environmental contamination,” said EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe. “Our plan calls for capping and dredging of approximately 387,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment.”
She noted that the Passaic River supported industry in New Jersey for several decades, but it came at a cost, which is now being remedied.
“We're officially kicking off our efforts today to get even more contamination out of a river that means so much to so many communities,” she said.
The Passaic River clean-up effort is expected to be the most expensive project since the EPA began identifying and depolluting Superfund sites.
The river is known as the Diamond Akali Superfund, as Diamond Akali Co. – a pesticide and herbicide manufacturer – was known to regularly pollute the river with chemicals.
“Our communities are living with the consequences of an era when big corporations were free to dump toxic chemicals wherever they please,” said New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez
Towns in the affected areas include East Rutherford, Rutherford, Lyndhurst, North Arlington, Clifton, Passaic, Belleville and more.
Sen. Menendez said the descendants of those responsible for the continued pollution will foot the bill – which could reach nearly $2 billion.
The EPA is hoping to build a temporary treatment facility around 2023 in either Essex or Hudson county, after which, clean-up would start on the lower half of the river.
Officials are hoping that the clean-up of the upper and lower halves of the river will overlap to avoid limitations in river traffic and bridge closures.