The litter in Rand Park can end up in the Newark Bay? : Yep! Toney's Brook and the toxic Passaic River

During the fall of my freshman year, my friend and I would eat lunch on the grass next to Toney's brook everyday. Little did I know, I'd spend the rest of my high school years on possibly that same water for hours of the day. Though it may seem like a weak little stream to us, in the 19th and early 20th century, Toney's Brook actually supported several mills. These mills produced lumber, beer, calico, brass fittings, and pasteboard boxes. Toney's Brook not only flows through Rand Park, but through Anderson Park, Edgemont Park, Glenfield Park, and then into Bloomfield where it joins a tributary of the Passaic River. As a member of our school's rowing team, I spend 13+ hours at this notoriously stinky, polluted, and icky river per week. So fun! 

Here is a rare photo of the Passaic River 

actually looking pretty nice!

Quick story to testify to the river's ickiness : I unintentionally gave my teammate both an eye AND an ear infection one time because I kept accidentally splashing her during practice ... oops. Anyways, I learned only recently that our very own Toney's Brook connected to the river - which I basically call home at this point - and I started thinking about the garbage and litter I always see in Rand Park. Could the empty bag of chips I saw on the park path last week be the same one caught on my oar today at practice? I learned that the Passaic flows from Millington Gorge in Long Hill Township, through Berkeley Heights, Summit, Chatham Borough, Millburn, Livingston, Florham Park, East Hanover, Little Falls, Paterson, Clifton, Garfield, Kearney, Nutley, and Belleville, before finally entering the Newark Bay. The distance from our school's segment of Toney's Brook to the Newark Bay is about 20 miles, yet the things we leave in Toney's brook could end up there, or in any of the places the Passaic flows through. 

Map of the Passaic River

But our personal pollution of Toney's brook is not responsible for the Passaic River being considered one of the most polluted stretches of water in the nation (though you still shouldn't litter by the brook ... or anywhere, for that matter). In the mid-20th century, manufacturing companies, such as Diamond Alkali, a chemical company, used the Passaic River as their personal garbage can. Pesticides, herbicides, layers of dioxin, mercury, PCBs and even components of Agent Orange, were dumped into the river. Many of these chemicals are known to cause health issues, like birth defects or cancer, and are extremely harmful to the wildlife and those living along the river. Even with hopeful cleanup projects taking place, the wildlife in the river are still decades from recovery. Since 1984, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has banned commercial fishing from the river, and advised the public not to eat fish caught in the Passaic. 

Photos of Nereid Boathouse cleanup, following flooding caused by Hurricane Ida

After spending about 6 hours shoveling toxic mud, I was covered with some lovely hives. 

Though the issues of the Passaic River have been piling up for many years, not much has been done up until recently to try and clean the water. Most of the communities living near the water are lower-income communities of color, who are often wrongfully blamed for the trashiness of the river. Since the early 80s, activists from these communities, along with environmental activists, have demanded state and federal investigations into the toxic waste put into the river. In 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a plan to remove segments of toxic mud from the bottom of the river. Since then, there have been two smaller cleanup projects, but they haven't done enough to make significant, lasting, change. In 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection announced a plan for the reclamation of the Passaic. This project intends to remove enough toxic mud to fill the Red Bull Arena three times over. The project is called The Diamond Alkali cleanup, named after one of the companies responsible for Passaic River contamination, and is projected to cost over 1.8 billion dollars. The cleanup is expected to be paid for by the very companies that polluted the river. A nine-mile portion of the river is expected to cost 441 million dollars to cleanup, and another, more polluted 8.3 mile portion, is expected to cost 1.4 billion dollars to clean up. One of the goals of the Diamond Alkali Project is to build a riverfront park along the Lower Passaic River. This would create environmental and recreational benefits such as paths for stormwater to flow through, meadow and wetland areas, trees and shrubs, and healthier water to kayak or boat on. 

Though it is currently disgusting, this is a place I love very much!

The Passaic has been poisoned for the past 60 years, so full restoration is still many. many years away, but the goal of the EPA, NJDEP, and those who love the river, is to see it make its way back to being the river it once was. Prior to its contamination, people would swim in the Passaic, and it was considered the river that built New Jersey. Though I'll probably be too withered and old to row by the time the cleanup is hopefully done, I am eager to see the change that has been promised. I hope that future Passaic River rowers will not have to live in fear of getting the water in their blisters.