News
The Slow-Moving Fight to Clean New Jersey’s Most Contaminated River
More than 40 years after the Passaic River was declared a Superfund site, cancer-causing toxins still line its bottom. While residents drink from its waters, cleanup stalls under corporate resistance and potential federal budget cuts.
By Anna Mattson
Isiah Cruz is alone on the banks of the Passaic River—in North Ironbound, just east of Newark, New Jersey—hacking away at a bundle of tall, leafy plants. It is a hot, muggy Sunday afternoon, hazy from Canadian wildfires.