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EPA Funded Project Reinforces Commitment to Restoring the Passaic River

Release Date: 09/08/2008
Contact Information: David Kluesner (212) 637-3653, [email protected]

(New York, N.Y.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently awarded a $60,000 cooperative agreement to the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC) in Mendham, New Jersey to educate the public on actions that can be taken individually, and as communities, to restore the health and beauty of the Passaic River and its watershed. Assistance funds such as this are awarded by EPA to focus resources and efforts on regional high priority areas, such as the Passaic River watershed, which includes the Passaic River, 80 miles long from its headwaters in Morristown to its confluence with Newark Bay, and the Passaic River watershed, covering 787 square miles in New Jersey and 148 square miles in New York. In recent years, EPA and its federal and state partner agencies have initiated a number of actions to accelerate the pace of contaminated sediment cleanup in the lower Passaic River and to restore the watershed’s natural resources.

“We’re cleaning up the Passaic River and restoring its watershed,” said EPA Regional Administrator, Alan J. Steinberg. This cooperative agreement helps empower Passaic River communities, governments, businesses and individuals to meet the challenge before all of us as environmental stewards of the Passaic River.”

ANJEC is teaming up with Future City, Inc., the Lower Passaic Watershed Alliance, the Passaic River Institute at Montclair State University and the Ramapo River Watershed Intermunicipal Council to carry out this project, which starts this month and will take approximately one year to complete. ANJEC and its partners will use the funds to develop and disseminate outreach materials tailored for municipal environmental commissioners, local officials and the public. These materials will help raise awareness of the presence and value of watershed resources and events, reduce pollution, minimize wastes, improve environmental stewardship practices within the watershed and promote healthy communities by increasing public awareness of the risks of consuming contaminated fish and shellfish. Resource guides, displays and a project Web site will be produced and workshops will be held to train environmental commissioners, local officials, businesses and others on the various federal and state watershed restoration funding resources and programs potentially available to help their communities.

For more information on the Lower Passaic River Restoration Project, visit the project Web site at http://www.ourpassaic.org orhttps://www.epa.gov/region02/passaicriver. Information about ANJEC can be found on their Web site at http://www.anjec.org.

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