EPA Must Scrap Flawed Passaic River Cleanup & Protect Public Health

The August 11, 2025, virtual meeting of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Community Advisory Group (CAG) drew a strong turnout from Harrison residents, who made it clear in the Zoom chat: the EPA’s current cleanup plan for the Passaic River is dangerously outdated and unacceptable.

The plan—centered on constructing a toxic dioxin open-air sludge processing plant on the remediated PSE&G property in Harrison—was met with pointed, informed criticism from community members and environmental advocates. Questions highlighted that the EPA is relying on decades-old data, conceived when the southern end of Harrison was an abandoned industrial zone. Today, that same land has been transformed into a thriving mixed-use neighborhood filled with luxury residences, hotels, retail spaces, and a busy PATH station and Red Bull Arena, now known as the Sports Illustrated Stadium.

A Plan Stuck in the Past

Originally designed to address a blighted industrial corridor, the EPA’s plan hasn’t caught up to present-day realities. Under the late Mayor Raymond J. McDonough and subsequent redevelopment, Harrison’s southern waterfront evolved from a toxic wasteland into an economic engine generating over $14 million in Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs) last year—revenue projected to reach $16 million in 2025. The PILOTS will equal the amount of revenue raised by property taxes for the rest of the Town of Harrison.

Yet the EPA proposes to bring on land, via a mechanical dredge, dioxin-laden sludge from the river, mix it with Portland cement, and ship it out to unknown toxic waste landfills via dump trucks — all in the middle of a densely populated community. Dioxin, one of the deadliest chemical byproducts of Agent Orange, can become airborne through fine particles. Even with promised air, odor, and noise controls, the potential for exposure in such close proximity to homes, shops, hotels, and commuters is an unacceptable gamble with public health.

Risks Extend Beyond Harrison

The EPA’s plan also targets the capped Lister Avenue Superfund site—ground zero for Agent Orange manufacturing in Newark’s Ironbound—as a staging area. This site contains some of the most hazardous chemical waste in the nation, buried under a protective cap precisely because it is too dangerous to remove.

During the meeting, one EPA staffer claimed the cap wouldn’t be disturbed, only to be contradicted by another EPA official who admitted it would be used, with assurances of weight monitoring and crack inspections. Such contradictions only deepen public distrust. Heavy equipment and construction atop this site risk rupturing the cap and releasing a cocktail of carcinogens into a nearby residential community just over a mile away.

Deception & Lies

The Harrison community’s outrage is fueled not just by the EPA’s stubbornness, but by a political betrayal. Three years ago, Harrison Mayor James Fife and Councilman/PVSC Commissioner James Doran assured residents that NO sludge plant was coming to Harrison. They dismissed and defamed those warning otherwise—despite knowing the plan was moving forward. Their deception cost the community valuable time in organizing opposition and has left many questioning why they support such a dangerous proposal.

A Better Path Forward Exists

Opponents are not asking the EPA to abandon the Passaic River cleanup. They are demanding a safer, smarter plan. Industrial South Kearny—free of residential neighbors and with direct highway and freight access—is an obvious alternative. Relocating the dewatering facility there would minimize public health risks while still advancing the river restoration effort. Or other locations further down the Passaic River in non-residential communities.

The PSE&G site in Harrison, cleaned at a cost of $367–$400 million, was once envisioned as a green space, the site of a community center, and a turnaround/drop-off zone for the Harrison PATH station and neighborhood. Using it as a toxic sludge plant would undo over 26 years of progress made in the Harrison Redevelopment Zone to turn contaminated industrial properties into a vibrant residential community and betray the EPA’s mission statement.

Time to Go Back to the Drawing Board

Per the EPA’s own statements, the dioxin in the Passaic River is currently held in place by riverbed sediment. The immediate public health threat is low—unless people consume fish or crabs from the river—meaning there is no need to rush a flawed plan into action. The agency still has time to correct course, incorporate updated science, and design a solution that protects both the river and the people who live along it.

EPA must go back to the drawing board. Anything less risks turning a long-awaited cleanup into another chapter in the region’s history of environmental injustice. The EPA has not been able to answer the following question: Has any other toxic sludge facility in the United States of America been located so close to a residential community, literally across the street from modern apartment buildings?

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