In the opening scene of Mark Ruffalo’s devastating new true-story legal thriller Dark Waters, released this week in New Jersey theaters, we watch as a car travels rural roads to a swimming hole. In the dark of night three teenagers exit the car near a “no trespassing” sign, jump a fence, and dive in. The camera pans to signs marked “containment pond,” where chemical byproducts of Dupont’s manufacturing plants – specifically Perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA – are ostensibly “contained”.
The year is 1975. PFOAs are unregulated. Things end badly. We soon learn that PFOA is related to an abundance of health risks. The film traces a decades-long corporate cover-up of these risks, as well as loss of life and tremendous suffering. The film also makes clear how exceedingly difficult it is to contain toxic pollutants.
The issue of historic pollutant containment is the focus of a report released last month by the US Government Accountability Office that identifies the nation’s Superfund sites deemed most “at risk” of climate crises including flooding, coastal inundation, and wildfire. Of the 945 sites on the GAO list, 24 are in our 352-square mile Lower Raritan Watershed. That’s an incredibly disproportionate 4% of the most at-risk toxic sites in the United States. Our almost 900,000 watershed residents don’t have to travel rural roads to encounter pollutant hazards, they are proximate to where we live and work. More info on the GAO report, and a list of these sites, is on the LRWP website.
GAO-identified Superfunds in the Lower Raritan that are at-risk of natural hazards impacts (2019)
Of course the GAO only looks at Nonfederal Superfund sites. Here’s a map of all Known Contaminated Sites (KCS) in the watershed, many more of which are likewise at risk.
Not surprisingly, the concentrated band of sites that runs through the middle of the watershed traces along the Raritan River and feeder waterways. Our challenge will be containment of hazards impacts, particularly tough when stilling ponds and uses are proximate to flooded waters.
One of many Raritan River-adjacent landfills/Superfund sites at-risk of flood impacts Photo by Alison M. Jones, No Water No Life – taken during a LightHawk flight, April 2019
At-risk Superfund sites in the Lower Raritan Watershed include:
Federal Creosote, Manville
CPS/Madison Industries, Old Bridge
American Cyanamid, Bridgewater
Fried Industries, East Brunswick
Kin-Buc Landfill, Edison
Global Sanitary Landfill, Old Bridge
Renora Inc., Edison
Brook Industrial Park, Bound Brook
JIS Landfill, South Brunswick
Chemical Insecticide Corporation, East Brunswick
Monroe Township Landfill, Monroe
Sayreville Landfill, Sayreville
Chemsol, Piscataway
South Brunswick Landfill, South Brunswick
Myers Property, Franklin Township
Evor Industries, Old Bridge
Horseshoe Road, Sayreville
Higgins Farm, Franklin Township
Cornell Dubilier, South Plainfield
Atlantic Resources, Sayreville
Franklin Burn, Franklin Township
Raritan Bay Slag, Old Bridge/Sayreville
Woodbridge Road Dump, South Plainfield
Burnt Fly Bog, Marlboro
Concerns of risks posed by legacy pollutants, particularly in light of sea level rise and climate change, have long been on the LRWP’s radar. These concerns motivate our grant-seeking to protect inland communities from potentially toxic sediment deposition through tidal marsh restoration, and watershed partners will receive support through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to develop an engineering plan with a permit-ready design to start to protect vulnerable South River residents from riverine flooding and storm flows, and what we already know are toxic flows of sediment into their neighborhoods.
In coming months the LRWP will analyze the GAO and other data, prioritizing focus areas, and wrestling with what the Superfund report means in terms of restoration and resiliency planning for our watershed going forward. We will also be working to develop a strategy to best position ourselves to hold state and federal entities accountable for clean-up, protecting our communities, and similar.
