The Passaic River in New Jersey has been polluted with heavy metals, dumped chemicals and pesticides from factories for centuries. Staying away has turned second nature for the residents of Newark, as they know never to fish, swim boat or interact at all with the river to the the carcinogens infesting the water source. The Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized a $1.4 billion plan to restore an 8-mile stretch of the river. Roughly 100 companies are at fault for polluting the river. One unfortunate aspect of this article is that they never present the idea of stopping companies from releasing these pollutants into he water. Some also ague that a simple 8-mile clean up will only be a short temporary fix and that the EPA took an easy way out, with the least financial burden and the least resistance from opposing businesses faulted for polluting the water. The EPA insists that this cleaning will be a big step forward for the ultimate goal of having the entire rive usable by people. Ultimately, it seems as though cleaning an 8-mile stretch of a flowing river will have minimal long term impact. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/can-the-epa-clean-up-one-of-americas-most-toxic-rivers/2016/08/19/f9314c74-5829-11e6-831d-0324760ca856_story.html
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Alex Garcia-Environmentalist Archives
December 2016
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