The Bergen Record
Wednesday, November 30, 2000

A GOLD COAST FOR PASSAIC RIVER BANKS?
FEDERAL STUDY WILL CREATE PLAN FOR REVIVAL

BYLINE: JAN BARRY, Staff Writer

BODY: Imagine dinner cruises on the Passaic River amid revitalized riverbanks in the mode of the Hudson River gold coast.

That was the vision proposed Wednesday by government officials who gathered at the Newark Club to launch a federal study designed to create a blueprint for cleaning up the most contaminated reaches of one of America's most polluted rivers.

The $ 100,000 project, to be conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers, was hailed by congressional representatives, a state official, and Newark's city administrator as the key to giving the grimy Passaic the kind of makeover that has transformed the Hudson River
waterfront from Edgewater to Jersey City.

"As we see along the Hudson these days, people want to live along these rivers," said Rep. Robert Menendez, D-Union City.

In the wake of concerted cleanup projects along the Hudson, he said, people have flocked to spanking new residential and office buildings on former industrial sites to enjoy waterside views and aquatic sports.

"We want to see the same thing here,"Menendez said.

The yearlong federal study is aimed at identifying pollution hot spots in the Passaic River from its mouth in Newark Bay upstream to the Great Falls in Paterson. The roughly 25-mile stretch through an urban landscape borders several cities and towns in Essex, Hudson, Bergen, and Passaic counties.

At several points above the Dundee Dam in Clifton, which provides a barrier to tidal salt water, river water is pumped out and filtered to augment regional water supplies. But water quality is often impaired by storm runoff.

The Army Corps of Engineers will use the study as a basis for an array of cleanup actions. Funding was gained through a bipartisan effort of the state's congressional delegation, said 1 Menendez, who was joined by Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson.

"The Passaic River is not only an important part of the history of this region, it is a key to our future," said Pascrell."But to be a valuable part of economic revitalization and commerce in northern New Jersey, it must be clean."

Newark Business Administrator JoAnne Watson said the city and state and federal agencies have already begun a $ 75 million riverside park project along a two-mile stretch of the Passaic River that runs near Penn Station and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

The park and a river cleanup, she said, can usher in a new era in which "there is dining on the waterfront, cruising on the waterfront," such as at New York's South Street Seaport on the East River.

Speaking on behalf of the Army Corps of Engineers, Col. Gregory Bean said,"We look forward to working with everyone to identify the issues and come up with the right solutions to clean up the Passaic River."

Project Manager Paul Tumminello said the agency recently completed a similar study of Newark Bay, New York Bay, and Raritan Bay. Those bays are carpeted with polluted sediment, including elevated levels of dioxin and other industrial chemicals, that has contaminated fish and complicated dredging operations that maintain channels for oceangoing cargo ships.

That study stated that a cleanup solution for the lower Passaic River, which flows into Newark Bay, "may include the removal of contaminated sediments."

The new study also will address the causes of pollution, such as sewer plant overflows and stormwater runoff, said Tumminello.

Menendez and Pascrell said cleaning up more than a century's worth of pollution on the river bottom and banks will be expensive. Pascrell, a former mayor of Paterson, also said municipalities will have to correct contributing problems such as sewer overflows, and a central question will be"how do our municipalities tackle the cleanup without going bankrupt?" Asked if the study would shift financial responsibility for cleaning up industrial contamination from private industry to taxpayers, Menendez said that"we're not doing anything to let anybody off the hook who should be on the hook."