Federal officials today outlined a massive, $80 million cleanup of the Passaic River that will remove hundreds of tons of dioxin-laden sediment contaminating the river along a notorious Superfund site in downtown Newark.
In an agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency and the companies that inherited the liability for the heavily polluted site, 200,000 cubic yards of poisonous sediment will be removed from hot spots in front of the former Diamond Shamrock Chemical Co., which had manufactured pesticides -- including DDT and Agent Orange -- the deadly Vietnam-era defoliant -- at the site.
"This removal of contaminated sediment from the Passaic is a real down payment on the river's future," said Alan Steinberg, EPA Regional Administrator. "Today's agreement allows us to get the worst contaminants out of the river so it will never haunt the environment again."
Jeff Tittel, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, said the cleanup has been a long time in coming.
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_80m_cleanup_of_p.html