Politics & Government

Berkeley Heights Inches Closer To Passaic River Clean-Up Plan

Although funding from state is not available, Mayor Bruno wants to clear debris from river shoreline with Union and Morris Counties, New Providence, Chatham, Long Hill Township.

Berkeley Heights is slowly moving closer to cleaning up the Passaic River with area towns, but with little help from the State of New Jersey.

During the Berkeley Heights Council meeting on Tuesday night, Mayor Joseph Bruno said he recently spoke with Bob Martin, Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, at a meeting regarding the DEP’s complex lawsuit against Occidential Petroleum Corporation for pollution in the Passaic River. Hundreds of municipalities and government entities were named as defendants in the lawsuit, including Berkeley Heights, New Providence, Summit and other area towns.

After the meeting, Bruno said he followed up with Martin about how the state could help with the current debris and flooding issues with the Passaic River.

Find out what's happening in New Providence-Berkeley Heightswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“The big thing for the State is to get the money from Occidental, as much money as they can, so they aren’t really talking about giving any out at this point. It will still be incumbent upon us to do what we can with our budget to clean up as much of the steams and river as we can,” Bruno said. “What we can do is probably get some of the trees, twigs and debris along the shoreline. That’s pretty much all we can do; we don’t have any equipment or the manpower to do anything more than that.”

Bruno said the state’s pledge is that the entire river, which spans 80 miles across seven counties, will be eventually cleaned. However, there is no timetable for when that will begin and be completed.

Find out what's happening in New Providence-Berkeley Heightswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“I don’t think it’ll be anytime soon. One day, maybe we can actually drink the water from the Passaic River but they were not in the mood to be talking about giving us any money at that point so if we’re going to do it, we’ll do it with our own budget,” Bruno said.

Other town representatives at the DEP meeting said they were interested in joining the effort, Bruno said. He hopes they can put together a plan to clean up the Passaic River in the coming weeks and send it to the DEP.

“What I’m looking for are the four towns around here, [New Providence, Chatham and Long Hill Township], plus the two counties, [Morris and Union] that are involved to be able to dedicate some funds, manpower and volunteers, and to do what we can to keep as much water in the river as possible,” Bruno said. “This year, we haven’t had too much of a problem because it’s been pretty dry out there but again, the rains will come eventually and the snow caps will come eventually. I wish I had more defined information than what we’re looking at, but we’ll do what we can with the money we have.”

Flooding from the Passaic River has caused countless problems for homeowners living near the river in recent years, especially following Hurricane Irene last summer.

In early May, the sponsored a to start a dialogue about how to address the ongoing flooding issue.

About 100 residents from Berkeley Heights, New Providence, Chatham and Long Hill Township attended that meeting and learned it could take anywhere from five to 20 years to fix the flooding problem.

Panelists at the meeting indicated that this is largely due to lack of ownership and responsibility for the river from the municipalities and the county, which continues to prevent overall maintenance of the river, clearing of existing debris and dredging of the riverbeds.

Following that meeting, , which would likely fall on the shoulders of the council.

New Providence-Berkeley Heights Patch will continue to provide updates on the Passaic River clean-up effort as more information becomes available.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from New Providence-Berkeley Heights