Berrys Creek

Berry's Creek (sometimes referred to as Berrys Creek or Berry Creek) is a tributary of 6.5 miles, at length flowing into the Hackensack River in the New Jersey Meadowlands in Bergen County, New Jersey. The tributary flows through the towns of Teterboro, East Rutherford, and Rutherford in the State of New Jersey.

Geography

The creek, named for Major John Berry, an early British settler and Deputy Governor of New Jersey, is largely a tidal estuary, along with the Hackensack River. It rises at Riser Ditch in Teterboro, some of which is within the bounds of Teterboro Airport. The creek then winds through Moonachie and Carlstadt. In East Rutherford, the creek forms the western boundary at Walden Marsh, of the Meadowlands Sports Complex, first built in the 1980s as part of environmental mitigation for flood prevention measures. By 2000 AD, 30 such structures existed along the Hackensack confluence. [1]

At Route 3, the Berry's Creek Canal runs directly into the Hackensack River, entirely in East Rutherford, while the creek itself crosses into Rutherford and then forms the boundary between Rutherford and Lyndhurst until it reaches the Hackensack, which forms the boundary between Bergen and Hudson counties. [2]

Pollution and remediation

The creek has been measured as having the highest concentration, between 1 and 2 g per kg sample of methyl mercury of any fresh-water sediment in the world, the result being a total discharge of 268 tons of mercury-contaminated toxic waste into the creek between 1943 and 1974. The contaminated site of 40 acres was first operated by F W Berk & Co until 1960 when it was sold. [3] The ultimate owners Velsicol, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ventron Corporation had purchased the site from Wood-Ridge Chemical Corporation of New Jersey. Mr and Mrs Wolf, the eventual respondent owners demolished the factory plant in 1974, after attempts to install a treatment system proved woefully inadequate, but the residual pollution remained, rendering the site still unsustainable. CERCL Act 1980 enabled a tortious claim in the New Jersey High Court against the industrialists in a strict liability suit for compensation for land and water contamination.[4]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1983 and 1984 designated three industrial sites in Wood-Ridge, East Rutherford and Carlstadt adjacent to the creek as Superfund sites. EPA and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection have begun cleanup activities on these sites but completion is projected to take several more years.[5][6][7][8]

Superfund sites include the Scientific Chemical site in Carlstadt, Universal Oil Products site in East Rutherford and the Ventron/Velsicol site, which spans Wood-Ridge and Carlstadt. In addition to mercury, all three sites are laden with PCBs. Only the Scientific Chemical site is listed as “under control.”[6]

In October 2018 the EPA announced a 5.5 year plan to remove and/or cap the toxic waste in the creek and its watershed.[9]

Wildlife

Berry's Creek harbors the last remaining northern harrier nest site in the Meadowlands. It is heavily used by wintering raptors. In November 1991 a water sample survey found high levels of the metallic element chromium in the hepatopancreas of the local Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus) population.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ ERDC, HMDC & USACE - NYD, Flood Control Survey 2000 performed by HMD.
  2. ↑ Berry's Creek
  3. ↑ Berrys Creek Canal
  4. ↑ Patel, Sabrina (2004). "Berry's Creek". Retrieved 7 December 2017.
  5. ↑ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). New York, NY. "Ventron/Velsicol Superfund Site." 2009-06-04.
  6. 1 2 EPA. "Scientific Chemical Processing Superfund Site." 2008-06-25.
  7. ↑ EPA. "Universal Oil Products Superfund Site." 2008-07-16.
  8. ↑ Patel, Sabrina. "Berry's Creek." teterboro-online.com. June 2004.
  9. ↑ https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2018/10/berrys_creek_mercury_pollution_clean_up_plan_annou.html#incart_river_index
  10. ↑ The date was collected at three locations on the Diamond Shamrock, Sawmill Creek, and Berry's Creek by The "National Academy of Sciences Benedict Estuaries Research Laboratories & HMDC Environmental Research Operations : Interim Report : Accumulation of Chromium in Blue Crabs of the Hackensack River, Hudson County, NJ". MESIC (Meadowlands Environmental Site Investigation Compilation, Site #32, Berry's Creek/Berry Creek's Canal.

Coordinates: 40°50′51″N 74°04′22″W / 40.847564°N 74.07272°W / 40.847564; -74.07272

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