$20M removal of 'highly contaminated mud' from Passaic River underway in Lyndhurst

[Jigman13]

http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2..._river_default

[jimmythegreek]

godd to see some progress, but Im concerned the equipment in the pictures shows no water direction treatment. Once they dig up the mudbed and disturb the bottom, the chemicals are slightly released into the water on the way up to the barge, then just flow to the ocean? I guess something is better than nothing, and im surprised Christie wants to steal 40million to balance the budget. It should stay in the river and make parks and boat ramps, there should be WAY more access to the river than whats there now

[Fish n Jeep]

The fish downstream of there will just be that much more toxic. There are already consumption warnings.

[basspilot]

I'm kind of curious how long the toxins currently in the fish and other creatures in the passsic will take to be called "safe" to eat. I would imagine this will take a while but its good to see the passaic finally receive the attention its deserved for decades.

[gnuisance]

Wow it must have been pretty bad in the past. I have to say it's a little unnerving to hear all these things about how the P was such a dumping ground. I don't eat anything from there and never would but I fish it and beat those banks pretty good. Am I going to grow an arm out of my ass?

[Jigman13]

Does removing the mud offer a solution or create a short-term problem, kicking the contaminants up and re-introducing them back into the flow of the river? What are the effects of said contaminants on the current and future fish populations of the mighty PR?

I know what the long term angle is--clean up the river. I feel as if, from an investigative report standpoint, several additional questions should have been raised and addressed. But I certainly do not oppose the long term goal.

[FASTEDDIE29]

Interesting!!!

[Lard Almighty]

Originally Posted by Jigman13

Does removing the mud offer a solution or create a short-term problem, kicking the contaminants up and re-introducing them back into the flow of the river? What are the effects of said contaminants on the current and future fish populations of the mighty PR?

I know what the long term angle is--clean up the river. I feel as if, from an investigative report standpoint, several additional questions should have been raised and addressed. But I certainly do not oppose the long term goal.

You are never going to remove 100% of the contaminated silt from the river. Some will not be able to be accessed due to engineering limitations. Others, like you said, will be lost to the flow of the river and redistributed further downstream. Likely, the disturbance of the sediments will create a short-lived spike in waterborne contamination, but will ultimately benefit water quality. Current aquatic life may accumulate additional contamination in their tissue as a result, but should otherwise be able to live fairly normally. As long as their is sufficient food and oxygen, fish can live with quite a bit of pollution in their systems before they die off.

[acabtp]

Originally Posted by basspilot

I'm kind of curious how long the toxins currently in the fish and other creatures in the passsic will take to be called "safe" to eat. I would imagine this will take a while but its good to see the passaic finally receive the attention its deserved for decades.

in all likelihood, the lower passaic river, hackensack river, and the whole newark bay complex will never be safe to eat fish from again.

removing all of the contaminated sediment will never happen, there is just too much. right now, they are concentrating efforts on the sediments where dioxin is highly concentrated as a result of agent orange manufacturing back during the vietnam war. but dioxin is just one high profile type of a huge number of contaminants in the water there, a small portion of a huge problem. a lot of other issues, like heavy metal contamination, remain waiting there, without breaking down, effectively forever. every storm that stirs up mud, every crab that burrows around, ever bottom feeding fish that kicks up the silt... they are all slowly releasing the contaminants back into the water.

[buzzbaiter]

Most toxins - PCBS, pests, metals inc. mercury - are in the sediment/sludge but once disturbed, can remain suspended for quite some time which means they get carried out to Hudson River/Bay and/or the ocean. They should have done this last year when the river was at near record low levels and these "mudflats" were all exposed. The inside of bends is where this stuff builds up. Scoop that sh*t out. It would help alleviate some flooding. In all honesty, most of the river could use a good dredging. Its too shallow for its size and basically its one long sand /mud flat from Long Hill Twp up to Two Bridges except around Chatham where some rocks show up.