Hackensack Riverkeeper Hosts Neighborhood Meeting About EnCap

Harmon Cove meeting responds to numerous Watershed Watch Hotline calls

 

By Hugh M. Carola

Sometimes they come in anonymously because the caller is afraid of the people doing the polluting. Sometimes they come after people hear a rumor about a proposed housing development. Oftentimes they come in simply because the caller wants information about a watershed issue and they know that if we don’t have it at hand, we can get it for them ASAP. Whatever the reason, our Watershed Watch Hotline (1-877-CPT-BILL) is their resource.

Late last year, the Hotline started fielding a large volume of calls from people in Secaucus wondering what was going on across the Hackensack River in Rutherford and Lyndhurst.

These observant watershed residents were seeing the beginnings of the EnCap brownfields redevelopment project. When completed, this ambitious project will transform 1,300 acres of abandoned landfills into 100 acres of residential/commercial construction and 1,200 acres of golf courses and green recreational space. Most importantly for the river, those old garbage dumps will no longer ooze toxic leachate every time it rains.

Since the majority of calls were coming from residents of Harmon Cove in Secaucus, Captain Bill Sheehan, executive director of Hackensack Riverkeeper, figured that it would make a great venue for a public meeting. He contacted Hackensack Riverkeeper Trustee Alice Allured, a Harmon Cove resident, who helped secure a room and meeting date. A call to Bill Gauger, president of EnCap/Cherokee Northeast brought him on board.

“Much of the information about our project comes through the media,” said Gauger,” but I realized it was important to get out and meet our neighbors to address their questions.”

Many of the questions addressed at the December 14, 2004, meeting dealt with the scope of the project; for example, why such a large number of trees across the river had to be cut down. Residents were shocked to learn that despite appearances to the contrary, the trees were growing atop the Rutherford Landfill. When that dump was closed in the 1960s, dirt was bulldozed over the reeking piles of garbage. Nature being what it is, bare dirt doesn’t stay bare for long and eventually trees and other vegetation took root and softened the blighted landscape.

“It looked nice but the reality was that those trees were rooted in garbage and the Rutherford Landfill was polluting the Hackensack River every time it rained,” said Capt. Bill. “The same is true for the Lyndhurst and Avon Landfills where EnCap is also currently working.”

By the end of the meeting, participants realized what they were witnessing across the river was not unlike surgery. Often healing can only occur after an invasive procedure, a bit of scarring and a period of recovery.