Some cancer-causing waste that lies for 9 miles along the bottom of the Passaic River in Essex, Bergen and Passaic counties would be removed while some contaminated sediment would be left and capped beneath a barrier, according to a $441 million cleanup plan unveiled Wednesday by federal environmental officials.
The plan, which still needs final approval, would dredge 387,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment laced with cancer-causing dioxin, PCBs and heavy metals from North Arlington to the Dundee Dam, which lies across the river between Clifton and Garfield.
The plan by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is smaller than the $1.4 billion plan to partially dredge the river s lower 8 miles from bank to bank in Newark and Hudson County. The new plan targets hot spots in the river where dioxin and other pollutants have been detected.