NJ Productive Ecologies II - Citizen Interview/Access to Marsh

Because we had previously visited the areas of our site along the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers on a studio boat tour in September, we decided to make an early October visit to the Kearny section to try and get a peek of the marsh.

Using the world wide web, we found complicated directions to our destination at Gunnell Oval Park.

What we found was a very discreet "trail" that led us to the marsh. We were determined to walk through the overgrown grasses, albeit some harassment by the hungry mosquito population.

We decided to document the current access conditions at Gunnell Oval Park, from start to finish (finish being the first sight of the marsh). Later that day, we came across a citizen of Kearny at the park and decided to muster up enough guts to ask him some questions for our research. We were not entirely surprised to learn from him that Kearny residents have very little connection to the wetlands, and the landfill itself...let alone the construction of "cool" projects regarding energy efficiency.

Unfortunately, we did not think to ask for his permission to post the brief interview online so we decided to create a mash-up of the access video and interview audio.

Take a look...

Access to Kearny Marsh from Laura Moen on Vimeo.

NJ Productive Ecologies V - Powers in Struggle

The next step in our project was to identify the bodies of power, regulation, and activism that relate to the thesis that we were trying to make visible.

Research on the landfill’s history and current occupation revealed startling information. Firstly, it’s important to once again clarify that we were now looking at not only the landfill itself, but the adjacent Kearny edge, which includes park spaces and other more confined industrial sites. Through online research, we found that there is a current redevelopment plan underway for the area of Kearny along Schuyler Avenue, which can be contextualized in the Relevant Structures blog post. This development is being facilitated by a firm known as Russo Development. Furthermore, our research revealed that flooding concerns that were recently sparked by Hurricane Irene in late August have generated a pump station proposal to deal with the excess water in the low-lying area east of Schuyler Avenue. This online article revealed that the pump station will potentially direct all flood water through Frank’s Creek, and ultimately into the wetlands. Given the data we collected by the Rutgers team, it was obvious that this proposal would be a huge issue in terms of amplifying the contamination that enters the wetlands.
Some separate supplemental research found that there is currently a solar panel project underway at the landfill. Yet another online article revealed some potential judgement that can be made due to the way in which the solar farm is advertised. Prior research told us that the Keegan Landfill is a 100 acre site. The online article boasting about the solar farm reveals that it will only occupy a mere 13 acres of the site. Furthermore, the article makes it seem as though the landfill is not currently active, which is not the truth. Although the solar project is innovative in the way that it provides renewable energy, which is considered to be a more sustainable energy source, the public relations surrounding its construction ultimately seem to blanket the issues that surround the landfill itself.

In regards to the power plant, we found that it is owned by Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), which is a publicly traded company headquartered in Newark, New Jersey. The large map above shows the four levels of ownership and regulation occurring within this particular site. They are private, city, state, and federal. The site is monitored closely by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to retain proper emissions standards. PSEG was required to pay a fine to the city of Newark, The State of New Jersey, and the EPA. In 2012, they are scheduled to receive 180 million dollars to aid in plant operations and possibly will receive 220 million the following year.

Over the past one hundred years, the Standard Chlorine Site, Kopper’s Coke site, and Diamond Shamrock site have changed hands multiple times. The Standard Chlorine site, though owned by the Standard Chlorine Chemical Company, Kearny, NJ is watched closely by the EPA who is facilitating the remediation of the site. The Kopper’s Coke site, currently owned by The Hudson County Improvement Authority, has hopes of being purchased by New Jersey Transit for redevelopment according to an article written by The Jersey Journal. The Diamond Shamrock site, formerly owned by Chemical Land Holdings, is now owned by Terra Solutions. Together these three sites comprise just over 180 acres of land. Designated as potential sites of development, little to no action. In a report completed by the New Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, the sites are good contestants for infrastructure development in relation to growth development.

NJ Productive Ecologies IV - Contamination Alert

At this point in the studio project, we realized that it would be helpful to break apart our site into three pieces for closer study: the power plant, the super fund site, and lastly the landfill and its relationship to the marsh and Kearny’s edge. As we continued to develop our research, we discovered information that focused more specifically on how our sites of study affected the natural ecosystem(s) around them.

Upon conducting research on the landfill, data was retrieved from a Rutgers University study that focused on the way development around the wetlands has contributed to contamination. Interestingly enough, we found that there was indeed a source of contamination coming from, what we now know to be, the newly re-operated landfill; however, the data further informed us that there was also a significant amount of contamination coming from municipal stormwater inputs as a result of development occurring in Kearny. This data basically suggested that there was a large concentration of contamination from this stormwater at the site of Frank’s Creek, which can be contextualized in the Relevant Structures blog post. In addition to deriving this substanital set of information, a brief inquest was done to determine the types of waste being put into the landfill by external sources.

Regarding the power plant, research was done on the integral way that the energy-producing site both takes and gives back to the Hackensack River. Better known as the Hudson Generating Plant, operated and owned by PSEG, is located on the eastern bank of the Hackensack River. Research showed us that the power plant uses water from the river in its cooling process, which is then excreted back into the river. This coal-powered generating station was declared one of the top 10 biggest pollution agents in the United States and was involved in a law suit with the EPA, the state of New Jersey and the city of Newark in 2006 due to their lack of sufficient cleaning procedures. Because of this, PSEG installed a 700 million dollar selective catalytic reduction system. We found that this system was ultimately able to reduce their emissions by 88 percent in 2010. All data found here.

The Standard Chlorine Site was deemed a Superfund Site by the EPA in 2001. According to a Public Health Assessment released in 2005 by the US Department of Health and Human Services, the 25-acre site contains tanks and drums holding dioxin and asbestos contaminants, soil filled with various contaminants and PCB in the vicinity of a former transformer. As stated in the report, all areas of this site appear to drain directly into the Hackensack River. This possesses an environmental health threat which has warranted warnings against the consumption of fish, especially crab, from the Hackensack River. On either side of the Standard Chlorine Site sit the former Kopper’s Coke and Diamond Shamrock sites. A 2003 study conducted by the New Jersey Institute of Technology and North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, Inc. shows that although the Kopper’s Coke and Diamond Shamrock sites have not been given Superfund status, they also hold toxins in the soil which poss a threat to the river.

NJ Productive Ecologies III - Identifying Relevant "Structures"

The map above highlights structures that we considered to be relevant to our overarching thesis, which is that current urban infrastructure (industry, etc.) is not only imposing on the natural wetlands, but ultimately creating a barrier for residents around them. This barrier is crucial to examine because there is more meaning to the idea of having ‘access’ to a natural ecosystem than to perceive it as a mere physical connection. It’s more-so about how that physical connection can create a way of thinking for people, which will help to not only protect the wetlands from further contamination, but to connect people to the natural environment that they often don’t realize they are a part of.

NJ Productive Ecologies I - Making Observations

One of the first ideas that came to mind as we looked closely at our site both online (via google maps) and on the ground*, was that we would be looking at existing conditions around the overall edge of the wetlands that could potentially reveal the conflict that our studio sought to analyze. Using prior knowledge and experience, we quickly predicted that there were issues concerning human access to the natural ecology in the area, but also that there was probably some significant contamination coming from the series of industrial sites that find themselves along different parts of the wetland edge. These sites include the former 1-A Landfill, also known as Keegan Landfill, the Kopper’s Coke and Standard Chlorine Site, which has been designated a superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and also the power plant along the Hackensack River, which most people refer to as the Hudson Generating Station.


*check out this blog post for on-site footage of our walk through the access point at Gunnell Oval Park