Dredging of Contaminated Sediment to Begin

Excerpt from an article in the February 2012 Civil Engineering magazine:

Dredging of Contaminated Sediment in New Jersey's Passaic River to Begin

As attested to by the large amounts of contaminated sediment present in its channel, New Jersey’s Passaic River has long been home to significant industrial activity.  This contamination is particularly acute in the final 17 miles of the river, from Dundee Dam, in Garfield, to the river’s confluence with Newark Bay.  In an effort to address one of the waterway’s most contaminated locations, dredging is scheduled to begin this spring in a section of the river in Newark that adjoins the site of a former pesticide manufacturing facility known to have released large amounts of the toxic compound dioxin into the river.

The section of the river that is to be dredged is included within the Diamond Alkali Superfund Site, a federally designated area that encompasses the Neward plant site, the final 17 miles of the Passaic and its tributaries, and portions of Newark Bay.  The Superfund site is named after the Diamond Alkali Company, which owned and operated the Newark plant from 1951 to 1969.  (Diamond Alkali was later known as the Diamond Shamrock Chemicals Company.)

Dioxin, a by-product of pesticide manufacture, has been found at high levels at the site of the former manufacturing facility, which is approximately 3 miles upstream of the mouth of the Passaic.  Over time significant quantities of dioxin entered the river, which, because of the tidal influence, carried the contamination upstream as well as downstream.  Under the terms of the federal Superfund law (formally, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act), the Occidental Chemical Corporation – a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, of Dallas – has taken on the liabilities from the operations of the Diamond Shamrock Chemicals facility as a result of its purchase of the liabilities from the Diamond Shamrock Corporation, now known as the Maxus Energy Corporation, of The Woodlands, Texas.  Therefore, Occidental Chemical is legally responsible for remediating the contamination caused by the former manufacturing plant.  However, Maxus Energy has contractual responsibilities through an indemnification agreement with Occidental Chemical to perform remedial activities on the latter’s  behalf.  Meanwhile, a subsidiary of Maxus Energy – Tierra Solutions, Inc., of East Brunswick, New Jersey – is overseeing the financing, design, and construction activities related to the continuing effort to remove contaminated material from the Passaic.  ARCADIS/Malcolm Pirnie, of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, is the principal design firm and general contractor for Tierra Solutions.