November 23, 2013 — In what critics call a desperate bid to avoid the most expensive toxic cleanup in New Jersey history, the companies responsible for polluting the Passaic River are promoting a plan they say will help keep people safe: swapping contaminated fish pulled from the river with healthy ones.
The plan would involve a less-extensive cleanup along with the establishment of an indoor fish farm so anglers along the Passaic — one of the most polluted rivers in the nation and a federal Superfund site — can exchange the fish they catch with fish that are safe to eat.
The fish exchange is the latest idea by 70 companies that have been waging a public relations campaign for more than a year against the Environmental Protection Agency, which is developing a cleanup plan that could cost them billions.
The companies say that one of the most likely ways the public comes in contact with the contamination is through recreational fishing. By giving people healthy fish to eat, the companies say they can lessen the impact of the pollution. It would also mean they would not have to dig up nearly as much contamination as federal officials are likely to require.
The plan, which the companies call the “Sustainable Remedy,” has been sharply criticized by environmental officials, who believe the companies are looking for a way out of the massive bill.
“They are panicked and scrambling,” said Ray Basso, an EPA official who is overseeing the Passaic cleanup.
“Their motivation is that they don’t have to dig as much stuff out of the river,” he said. “We would not take it seriously.”
The EPA is expected to unveil a cleanup plan in January. EPA officials have revealed few details of the cleanup except to say it will be “bank to bank,” focusing on every part of the river, from Belleville eight miles south to Newark Bay. Last year they said they were in favor of a $1 billion to $1.8 billion project to dredge about 4.3 million cubic yards from the bottom of the Passaic — enough to fill 358,000 dump trucks — over six years. The area would then be backfilled to prevent the remaining pollution from spreading. The EPA is also considering another plan, which would include dredging all of the contaminated sediment — 9.6 million cubic yards — at a cost of $1.4 billion to $3.5 billion.