Newark Bay Complex

Newark Bay
The mouth of the Passaic and Hackensack rivers on Newark Bay is occupied by Ports Newark and Elizabeth in Essex and Union counties, NJ, and serves regional and national shipping. The Bay drains through the Kill Van Kull and Arthur Kill. This highly industrialized bay is badly contaminated, especially with dioxin from the abandoned Occidental Chemical plant in Newark, causing its designation as a federal Superfund site, and complicating the costly disposal of contaminated dredge spoils. Baykeeper and Hackensack Riverkeeper, along with other partners, have launched the Passaic River Initiative (a campaign focused on both the river and bay.) The establishment of a permanent Passaic River Patrol is one goal of this program.

• Arthur Kill (tidal strait)
  The strait separating Staten Island from New Jersey's Union and Middlesex counties, feeds into Raritan Bay. Once seen as an unredeemable industrial dumping ground, especially damaged by the petrochemical industry, the Arthur Kill was the site of Baykeeper's first major environmental victory in 1990. Baykeeper continues to work for the clean up of Arthur Kill contaminated sites. Baykeeper is also working with the state and municipalities of Woodbridge, Carteret, Union, Elizabeth, Linden, and Edison on brownfields to greenfields conversion, open space acquisition, and is battling bad development practices. The Carteret waterfront park project is well underway, a project that will allow citizens to access their waterfront for the first time in 100 years.

  Arthur Kill Tributaries
  (New Jersey side, from north to south)

  • Elizabeth River
    A NJ tributary of the Arthur Kill. Local groups and Baykeeper have conducted an initial reconnaissance for restoration planning in the town of Elizabeth. At the river's mouth, Baykeeper is working with local groups on a brownfields redevelopment with a significant greenfields component.

  • Morses Creek
    A NJ tributary of the Arthur Kill. We are working on wetland preservation there. Piles Creek – A NJ tributary of the Arthur Kill. We are working on wetland preservation there. Last year, Baykeeper in conjunction with the NJDEP obtained a conservation easement for 101 acres along the Creek.

  • Rahway River
    A NJ tributary of the Arthur Kill. The Mouth of the Rahway River comprises the largest remaining wetland system in the Arthur Kill Watershed. Because of immense development pressure here and significance of the remaining habitat, Baykeeper has teamed with the state and community groups to restore impacted stream banks and wetlands and convert brownfields to greenfieds. Baykeeper is challenging proposed road construction and major residential/commercial development plans that would destroy critical fish and bird habitat (including extensive harbor heron habitat). The Rahway Valley Sewage Authority is located on the Rahway River. Several combined sewer overflows discharge into the river.

  • Woodbridge River
    An Arthur Kill tributary. We are doing wetlands acquisition work with the town of Woodbridge, looking at approximately 100 acres for land for preservation to create a Woodbridge municipal greenway.

  • Smith Creek
    A NJ Arthur Kill tributary with significant cultural value.

  Arthur Kill Tributaries
  (Staten Island side, from north to south)

  • Old Place Creek
    Drains western Staten Island, a tributary of the Arthur Kill.

  • Saw Mill Creek
    Drains western Staten Island, a tributary of the Arthur Kill.

  • Chelsea Creek
    Drains western Staten Island, a tributary of the Arthur Kill.

  • Fresh Kills
    Drains western Staten Island, a tributary of the Arthur Kill. Mouth is at Island of Meadows, a nature preserve purchased with Natural Resource Damage money advocated for by the Safe Harbor Coalition of which Baykeeper was a part, after the 1990 Exxon Arthur Kill spill.
    • Richmond Creek
      Drains western Staten Island, tributary of the Fresh Kills and Arthur Kill.

    • Main Creek
      Drains western Staten Island, a tributary of the Fresh Kills and Arthur Kill.

  • Tappens Creek
    Drains western Staten Island, a tributary of the Arthur Kill.

  • Mill Creek
    Drains western Staten Island, a tributary of the Arthur Kill.

  • Lemon Creek
    Drains western Staten Island, a tributary of the Arthur Kill.

• Kill Van Kull (tidal strait)
  This heavily industrialized strait separates the northern end of Staten Island from Bayonne, NJ. The strait links Newark Bay with Upper New York Bay. Baykeeper's land preservation program is active here. Baykeeper has also worked to direct the Army Corps and Port Authority away from dredging in this narrow, rocky, dangerous strait, in favor of ports in Bayonne and Brooklyn that have less need to dredge. The dredging in the Kill Van Kull will still not allow the largest ships to pass under the Bayonne Bridge, or to pass side by side, while having negative environmental impacts.

• Passaic River
  Flows from western NJ into Newark Bay. The river is tidal from Dundee Dam southward. One of the most abused industrial rivers in America, the Passaic is in the early stages of recovery, and is being addressed by the Baykeeper's Passaic River Patrol with Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic and Hackensack Riverkeeper., a plan to engage waterfront communities to protect, preserve and restore the river, and establish a citizen river patrol here. The river's full recovery will be complicated by its severe pollution, especially the Occidental Chemical dioxin Superfund site on the Passaic. The state of New Jersey, after many years of advocacy by Baykeeper, is in the process of assessing Natural Resource Damages against the river's biggest polluters.

  Major Passaic Tributaries
  (progressing from tidal Dundee Dam to the river's mouth):

  • Saddle River
    Passaic River tributary. Part of Baykeeper's anadromlous fish study. The Saddle River was the site of a deadly chemical spill in which Baykeeper played a significant role as an NGO observer and participant.

  • Third River
    A Passaic River tributary where Baykeeper is assisting the Third River Bank Association in acquiring land and establishing a river greenway. We are also working with the Friends of Clark's Pond and the US Fish and Wildlife Service to establish a nature preserve where a large scale native plant restoration has been conducted.

  • Second River
    A Passaic River tributary, though largely channelized Baykeeper, along with the EPA, International Youth Organization, Americorps, and Newark youth groups, was active in a long term 1990's project to map the stream corridor, do habitat restoration, perform stream bank stabilization, and community education.

  • First River
    Passaic River tributary in colonial times that has been nearly totally culverted and covered-over in the modern era. The lake at Weequahic Park (link) is an impoundment of the first river. The lake has an active citizen's group.

• Hackensack River
  Flows into Newark Bay through 8,000 acres of wetland and upland habitat known as the Hackensack Meadowlands. Baykeeper, with Hackensack Riverkeeper and the allies of the Hackensack Meadowlands Partnership, turned the tide against filling and developing of this damaged but recovering ecosystem. The defeat of the development-intensive Special Area Management Plan (SAMP) and Mills Mall proposal in 2003 has led the way for a model state and nonprofit partnership aimed at total Meadowlands preservation. Baykeeper with the Rutgers Law Clinic and NJ Audubon initiated launch of a land trust concept in 1994 that evolved into the watershed-wide Meadowlands Conservation Trust in 1999.

  Hackensack River tributaries
  (headwaters to mouth, N. to S.)

  • Overpeck Creek
    Hackensack River tributary, flows into river at Little Ferry. Baykeeper has supported the work of the Teaneck Creek Conservancy which has plans for large scale restorations.

  • Upper Mudabeck Creek
    Hackensack River tributary.

  • Bellmans Creek
    Hackensack River tributary.

  • Cromakill Creek
    Hackensack River tributary. Baykeeper, working with Hackensack Riverkeeper and the NJ Meadowlands Commission, is looking at land preservation and restoration.

  • Mill Creek
    Hackensack River tributary. In the early 1990's Baykeeper and partners won a major battle to stop development of wetlands for townhouses.

  • Lower Mudabeck Creek
    A Hackensack River tributary.

  • Berrys Creek
    Hackensack River tributary, just south of Giants stadium, noted for its extremely high levels of mercury contamination. We are working with government regulators and Riverkeeper to determine appropriate restoration and remediation.

  • Sawmill Creek
    Hackensack River tributary. Part of Sawmill Creek State Wildlife Area and Laurel Hill Park. We are working with Hudson County to acquire additional wetlands for Laurel Hill Park.

  • Penhorn Creek
    Hackensack River tributary, just east of Snake Hill in Secaucus.

  • Moonachie Creek
    Tributary of the Hackensack. Part of the small watershed and wetlands on which the Empire Tract is located, site of major Baykeeper, Riverkeeper and Hackensack Meadowlands Alliance defeat of Mills Mall project in 2003 (would have been largest mall east of Mississippi, located atop choice wetland habitat).