Polychlorinated sediment pollutants are a persistent problem in urban estuaries. Dioxins and PCBs pose a health risk for both organisms that populate estuarine food webs and for the humans who consume these food sources. Work over the past decade has shown that nutrient and cofactor enrichment of contaminated sediments can lead to contaminant mineralization through microbially mediated metabolism. An integrated bioremediation and ecological restoration project is planned for the 600-foot waterfront of the Metal Management Inc. site on the Passaic River. This project incorporates mitigation measures that would establish steep biogeochemical gradients by enriching sediments during dredge-and-fill operations. The plan is to connect a series of electron acceptors (CH4, CO2, SO4, NO3, and O2) in the sediments and the saltmarsh used to cap the mitigated system. The project goal is to integrate dioxin mitigation with restoration of keystone species. By capping enriched dredged sediments with saltmarsh ecosystems at significant scale, it could be possible to mitigate major portions of the Passaic River Estuary. Such mitigated systems may provide the only near term, cost effective solution capable of reversing Passaic River sediment contamination and ecological deterioration.

Under the present national administration, we've seen an alarming erosion of the mission of federal agencies tasked with protecting the environment. If federal agencies do not protect the environment of the Passaic River, then who will? Our answer is what we call "New Regionalism": a partnership between the NJ DEP, local communities, NGOs, and private citizens =96 to protect human health and the environment. Public outrage and local action against Occidental's dioxin pollution has so far resulted in decisive action. When Baykeeper, Hackensack Riverkeeper, and NRDC gave notice to Occidental of our intent to sue for "imminent and substantial endangerment" of human health and the environment, USEPA required Occidental/Tierra to pay for and expand the Superfund study area to include Newark Bay. This moment proved decisively that local activism does work. That's why we agree wholeheartedly with New Jersey's decision to bring legal action against Occidental, and to insist the company pay for a study to determine whether or not dredging the River is the appropriate interim remedy. What we do know with absolute certainty is this: The Passaic River belongs to the people, and we will not surrender it to polluters nor to recalcitrant agencies without a fight, allied with local and state partners.

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