The United States Department of Environmental Protection hosted a meeting last week to dicuss the future use of the PSE&G property at the southern end of Frank E. Rodgers Boulevard and while some things still seem unclear, one thing is certain — there won’t be any agent orange dewatered at the site.
However, dioxin, a chemical used in the making of the poisonous chemical, will.
The meeting Aug. 26 at Harrison High School drew a crowd of about 100 people, including two mayors — James A. Fife, of Harrison, and Carol Jean Doyle, of Kearny. Several members of the Harrison Town Council — James Doran, Jesus Huaranga, Elle Villalta and Larry Bennett — also attended, as did Fire Chief Henry Richard and Fire Director Harold Stahl.
The meeting included a presentation by Alice Yeh, a DEP project manager. Other representatives of the DEP were on hand to field questions. After Yeh explained the DEP’s portion, she entertained an hour-long question-and-answer period.
What the DEP is saying
The DEP noted this is a long-term project to decontaminate the lower eight-mile stretch of the Passaic River — from Newark, through Harrison, Kearny, Belleville, Nutley, North Arlington and Lyndhurst — all the way through Garfield. This phase of the project is known as the Diamond Alkali Superfund Site.
The EPA first noted the area would need fixing as early as 1984 and studied the site through 2014. In 2016 , the EPA decided on a cleanup plan and between 2017-2024, it chose Occidental Chemical to oversee and perform the cleanup with EPA oversight.
The EPA says it will create something called an “Engineered Cap,” which runs bank to bank, and it will isolate sediments from the river’s ecosystem. It will be made of sand with carbon particles and will, for the most part, be 15-inches thicks.
When completed, mudflats will be restored and wetlands will be replanted.
Before the capping however, the EPA says dredging will be needed. The dredging will cover approximately 2.5 million cubic yards, with dredging at an average depth of 3.5 feet below surface. However, in some spots, it will be less and in others, as deep as 25-feet down.
Hydraulic dredging equipment and a transport pipeline will be used as well as mechanical dredging and barge transport.
The sediment dewatering system will be created on the PSE&G property and will be an open-air facility. Support facilities will also be in East Newark, Kearny and Newark. At the Harrison facility, workers will manage debris and sediment contaminated by an oil substance, store clean capping material and have access to the Passaic River for transport.
The DEP assured residents there will be round-the-clock monitoring in the river and on all land; air-quality will be closely monitored, noise levels will be regulated and lights will be used so as not to create a nuisance. The properties will be fenced to keep trespassers out, buoys, lights and signs will be placed on the river and traffic will be controlled as best as it possibly can be.
In total, the on-land site prep and sampling is expected to last three years, but Yeh says the dewatering process should take around three months. In all, dredging and capping will last up to eight years and will be annually monitored for the first decade after completion, and then, every five years or after major storms thereafter.
Concerns
Several resident addressed Yeh et al at the meeting. However, The Observer recorded the entire meeting and invites readers to watch it — it’s two hours in duration — at www.youtube.com/theobservernj. However, here are some of the more noted comments and questions. Some speakers outright questioned the need to even do this — decades of what would now be illegal dumping and contaminants was the common reply — but others were unsure of just how safe the area would be while all of this occurred — and a general distrust of the DEP.
“The Town of Kearny has dealt with the DEP for the last three years and we’ve been totally ignored, I’d say, for the last six months,” Doyle said. “So when you come with all of these plans — and they all sound very positive — we’re really nervous and anxious because again, we’ve dealt with the DEP who left us high and dry, ignored us in many ways, and so our community is concerned. … Are you going to follow through with what you said? Are you going to make sure the residents have the opportunity if there is an emergency to so-called batten down the hatches and get a signal out via reverse 911 or a siren? The concern is we’ve dealt with government agencies before — recently — and it hasn’t been a good experience, so understand where we’re coming from.”
Harrison attorney John M. Pinho directly asked Yeh how long the PSE&G was considered for use to which Yeh said since around 2016. He was also displeased how it will all be set up on the land.
“It’s open air,” Pinho said. “That was something I didn’t know and it’s so much worse.”
Pinho also noted the area is also prone to flooding, as was the case in 2012 during Super Storm Sandy.
“It went all the way up past the PATH station and took out a police car,” he said. “If you’re bringing this very toxic cancer-causing sludge onto this property in what is now a residential community. …It’s so close, and the EPA’s mission statement is to protect public health, so why would EPA be bringing sludge into a residential community in an area that floods?”
That question generally went unanswered.
Meanwhile, when asked, Fife spoke and he says he plans on supporting, not fighting, the EPA’s plan.
“I’m not in favor of stopping it,” Fife said when a resident asked how the Town of Harrison would handle the federal agency’s plans. “We should get the river cleaned up. Public Service used to burn coal and much of it was put there (in the river) by Public Service. They used to dump their coal-tar waste into the river. That’s one of the reasons why I am sure EPA contacted Public Service … (they) were one of the main polluters of that area and they’re probably going to be willing to do some things to alleviate the problems.”
Fife also noted the site where the Harrison Seabras now lives was once occupied by Vo-Toys, which contaminated the site with the highly-dangerous substance mercury. During that cleanup, Fife says EPA and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection told him in an emergency, more than half the town would have had to be evacuated, but in that timeframe, there was not a single disaster and not one person was ever evacuated.
“The fire department worked with EPA and DEP to make sure that mercury was trucked out without any incidents. No one got poisoning, no one died. …There was no problem and they monitored it 24 hours every day. They had the fire department in there all the time checking things. … We need to get the river cleaned up so that — it’s not going to affect me I’ll be dead by then — but if you have kids, maybe one day they’ll be able to swim in that river.”
The same monitoring will be employed at the PSE&G site, Fife says.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.