Lower Hackensack River Officially Declared A Superfund Site

SECAUCUS, NJ — On an overcast Wednesday morning in Secaucus, major news was declared for the Hackensack River: The river was officially declared a Superfund site by the federal government.

It was in March of this year that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency first proposed naming the Lower Hackensack a Superfund site.

The announcement from the EPA on Wednesday makes it official.

The EPA held an 11 a.m. press conference at Laurel Hill Park: Secaucus town administrator Gary Jeffas and Riverkeeper Bill Sheehan were there, joined by EPA deputy administrator Walter Mugdan, Newark Congressman Donald Payne, Jr. and North Jersey Congressman Josh Gottheimer.

The designation means that federal dollars will be directed to do a clean-up of the river's mud, which has high amounts of chromium and other heavy metals due to years of industry along the river's banks. Mud and sediment in the Hackensack tests high for arsenic, lead, chromium, mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), according to the NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection.

It is the Lower Hackensack, a 19-mile segment of the river that starts at the Oradell Reservoir and empties into Newark Bay, that will officially become a Superfund site.

It remains unknown when the clean-up will begin or how long it will take; the Bergen County Record reported it "will likely take years or even decades to complete."

"It took years to get this river polluted and it will take years to clean it up," EPA spokesman Stephen McBay told Patch Wednesday. "Today is the first step in what will be a very long process."

For comparison, a 17-mile stretch of the Passaic River has been a Superfund site for the past 20 years, and federal clean-up on that river is still not completed. So far, about $2 billion has been spent on Passaic River clean-up, said McBay.

What the EPA is doing on the Passaic is soil dredging: The mud and sediment from the river bottom is dredged and pulled up, treated and deposited elsewhere, and replaced by a cap of sand, which is meant to prevent other toxins buried at the bottom of the river from leeching out.

This is the process that may be replicated on the Hackensack River in Secaucus, said EPA spokesman McBay.

And what does this mean for the people who kayak, boat or fish in the Hackensack River? The public will still be able to access and use the river while the clean-up is underway, said Sheehan previously. But McBay said he was not immediately able to confirm that and will depend on the scope of the clean-up.

However, both the EPA and Sheehan stressed that it is the river mud — not the river water — that is polluted.

Sheehan lives in Secaucus and his group rents kayaks to the public at Laurel Hill. He has been petitioning the federal government for years to get Superfund status for the Lower Hackensack.

"This is going to be really good for the environment," he said in March. "The water quality in the Hackensack has improved tenfold over the years and a lot of wildlife species have returned to the river. Cleaning up the river once and for all will benefit all of that."

He also said Wednesday that the clean up means the fish and crabs in the Hackensack may one day be safe to eat.

Research has shown residential property values increase up to 24 percent within three miles of superfund sites after cleanup. New Jersey has more Superfund sites than any other state in the nation.

Prior: Lower Hackensack River Proposed To Become A Superfund Site (March 2022)