Dredging of Passaic River halted after swing bridge breaks

LYNDHURST — The dredging of contaminated mud on the Passaic River has been halted for at least 30 days because a century-old swing bridge has again broken down, preventing barges from hauling out the material, officials said Wednesday.

It is the second time in as many months that problems at the Bridge Street Bridge have delayed the project to remove about 20,000 cubic yards of dioxin-laden mud next to Riverside County Park.

Environmental Protection Agency officials said the site has been secured and dredging will resume immediately when the bridge connecting Newark to Harrison is able to swing open.

“It’s very key to the site,” said David Kluesner, an EPA spokesman. “We’re working full time to resolve this.”

Dredging was supposed to be completed in October and capping done by December. Those deadlines are pushed back at least a month, Kluesner said. About 40 percent of the contaminated mud has been dredged to date. Almost 8,000 tons has been transported offsite for processing.

“We’re as eager as everyone to get this project resumed,” said Jonathan Jaffe, a spokesman for Cooperating Parties Group, a collection of 70 companies that either polluted the river or inherited the liability of past polluters.

The $20 million cleanup, paid by the group, is only the second time large amounts of contaminants have been removed from the Passaic River, one of the nation’s dirtiest waterways and a federal Superfund site for 17 miles from Newark Bay to the Dundee Dam in Garfield.

In late 2011, scientists discovered one of the highest concentrations of cancer-causing dioxin ever recorded at the surface of the Passaic River in a bend on the waterway next to Riverside County Park, 10.9 miles upriver from Newark Bay.

A plan to dredge and cap the area called for about 20,000 cubic yards of sediment to be scooped up, placed on barges and taken to a processing facility in Kearny. To get back and forth, the barges have to move under 11 mostly low-lying bridges that span the Passaic. The barges can clear some of the bridges only at low tide. Others like the Bridge Street Bridge have to be opened.

Dredging was to begin in July but was delayed a month when officials discovered the motors on the Bridge Street Bridge were inoperable. It is believed that salt water from Superstorm Sandy destroyed the motors that rotate the bridge where more than 11,000 cars cross.