Editor’s Note: ‘Hazard NJ’ is an investigative podcast and multimedia project from NJ Spotlight News revealing the dangers climate change poses to the state’s Superfund sites and the health threats that poses to people. Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and more. Read stories and watch reports here.
Residents of Newark’s Ironbound district remember the day workers wearing moon suits and respirators showed up to vacuum cancer-causing dioxin dust from the chemical polluter Diamond Alkali off their streets. That was about 40 years ago, and while the land-based cleanup was completed, the bottom of the Passaic River bottom remains a toxic mess that locals call “black mayonnaise.”
Diamond Alkali dumped dioxin into the river for decades. A big storm driven by climate change could stir up and spread that toxic stew. So, why is it taking so long to fix the problem? “It’s going to be the largest cleanup in Superfund history,” says environmental lawyer Michael Gordon. And the costliest, at $1.8 billion. The Environmental Protection Agency has almost completed an engineering plan for the cleanup, but the “potentially responsible parties” still can’t agree on who’ll pay how much to fund it. We report on the latest push for a cleanup as part of our series, “Hazard NJ.”
