WED: EPA Meeting on Berry’s Creek Cleanup

The EPA will hold a public meeting Wednesday evening to discuss its proposed plan to remove contaminated sediment from the waterways at the Universal Oil Products Superfund site in Bergen County. Major contaminants in the Berry’s Creek Study Area are mercury, PCBs and chromium, which have been found at high levels in the water and sediment and are also found in the plant and animal life. Mercury levels in Berry’s Creek are among the highest ever recorded in a freshwater ecosystem in the United States. The EPA has proposed a plan that involves capping the contamination after dredging, raising concerns that this will only be a temporary solution. An earlier meeting on the cleanup scheduled for January was cancelled due to Trump’s shutdown.

Who: Environmental Protection Agency

What: Public meeting on proposed cleanup plan for Berry’s Creek

Where: Hasbrouck Heights Free Public Library, 320 Boulevard in Hasbrouck Heights.

When: Wednesday, March 6, 6:30 p.m-8:30 p.m.

“Tomorrow is an important meeting to get the cleanup plan moving forward. We have waited for this for decades, and during all of that time more toxins have been getting into the environment, into fisheries and into birds. Toxic chemicals have robbed us of use of the river for far too long. We have to go after the polluters like Universal Oil, and we have to get these toxic sites cleaned up,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “A meeting on the plan in January had to be cancelled because of the Trump shutdown, making this meeting even more critical. Time is of the essence.”