EPA orders chemical company to design plans to clean polluted portion of Passaic River

Scott Fallon, NorthJersey.com
·2 min read
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Environmental authorities ordered a Texas chemical company Thursday to design a cleanup plan for a 9-mile stretch of the polluted Passaic River whose remediation has been tied up for years because of a dispute over who will pay for the massive project.

Under the order from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Occidental Chemical Corp. must perform what is likely a multi-year investigation of a portion of the river below the Dundee Dam, which spans the river between Garfield and the city of Passaic, including sampling the contaminated riverbed.

Occidental inherited the liability of the former Diamond Alkali plant in Newark, whose workers dumped cancer-causing dioxin into the river a half-century ago while making the infamous Vietnam War defoliant Agent Orange.

A polluted Passaic River

The Passaic is one of the nation's most polluted bodies of water for 17 miles from the dam to Newark Bay, and the lower portion has been designated a Superfund site. Because it connects to the bay, the lower portion of the river is tidal, so pollutants can be swept up and down the river over time.

Nine years ago, the EPA unveiled an ambitious $1.4 billion plan to dredge some of the pollution from the bottom of the river and leave the rest under a protective cap. But only a partial cleanup plan has been designed for 8.3 miles, paid for by Occidental. The actual cleanup work has not yet begun.

Only $150 million of the $1.4 billion has been secured from 85 other companies that were liable for some of the pollution.

Eric Moses, an Occidental spokesman, said his company already offered to design the cleanup plan for the 9 miles as long as it could seek cleanup costs from the 85 other companies. He said in a statement that the deal was rebuffed by the EPA in favor of the $150 million settlement announced in December, in an action he called "protecting polluters, not the Passaic."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Passaic River: EPA orders company to design cleanup plans