Passaic River, the Hudson River, the Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek all share the dubious distinction of hosting Superfund sites, where industry polluted the river. MetroFocus has a look at cleanup strategies.
John Farley of MetroFocus writes that the job of cleaning up Superfund sites "is an economically, politically and physically arduous one." Farley looks at these four sites, how they originally came to be polluted, what they are polluted with, and recent efforts to begin cleanup.
"Throughout the 20th century, the banks of the Passaic were lined with mills and factories, causing severe pollution. The worst offender was the Diamond Shamrock Chemical Plant in Newark, which produced the chemical weapon Agent Orange, according to The Star-Ledger. The sediment at the bottom of the river's mouth, near Newark, is lined with dioxin, a carcinogenic component of Agent Orange. Diamond Shamrock went out of business before the area was declared a Superfund site, but this past summer, after years of legal wrangling, a federal judge forced the companies that now own the site, Tierra Solutions Inc. and Occidental Chemical Corporation, to clean up the river."
Read the full story: Four Toxic Rivers: A Super Sad True Superfund Story
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