A mechanical dredge removes sediment from an area with high dioxin concentrations on the Passaic River, adjacent to the former Diamond Alkali facility in Newark, New Jersey. (NOAA)
‘Peaceful valley’: Passaic River is reborn in New Jersey - Al Jazeera America
Despite polluted banks, a waterway is flowing wild again through postindustrial landscape
NEWARK, N.J. — Amid the flotsam and jetsam of plastic bottles, car tires and other urban debris that litter the lower Passaic River, Hugh Carola, 56, guided a pontoon boat full of visitors through the waterway, whose terminus is a busy port and is lined with heavy industries that once dumped toxic chemicals into the river.
As the boat passed by the rusty Point-No-Point Bridge, an osprey — a fish-hunting raptor with a snow white chin — took off from a nest at the bridge and warily circled the boat. Later, Carola saw what the osprey was jealously guarding: two noisy chicks that peeked their heads from the twigs and branches of their nest.