Newark, New Jersey has held one of the notable titles as part of one of the states in the United States that had the highest pollution in the country. The area around the Passaic River was home to the old Diamond Alkali factory and in 1984 the Environmental Protection Agency listed this area as one of the most polluted in the U.S. The reason was mainly due to the fact that the factory created the deadly Agent Orange chemical used in the Vietnam war and the toxins were spread throughout the ground and environment, encompassing around seventeen miles.

While a daunting task, many are focused on using some new (and old) technologies to dredge and clean this area, in an attempt to return it to what once was a lovely ecosystem.

Sources:
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/cleaning-a-river-that-was-given-up-for-dead/
http://www.passaicriver.org/

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.