Hazard NJ
Hazard NJ is an investigative series that will highlight the different ways climate change and extreme weather will impact hazardous Superfund sites across New Jersey.
Episodes
Happy Earth Day from Hazard NJ and NJ Spotlight News! Thank you all for taking the time to listen to our podcast, and learn about the ways in which climate change is impacting some of New Jersey’s most toxic places. We’re happy to say that we are already working on our next season, which will take a hard look at a new pollution threat in the Garden State and beyond: PFAS, also called “forever chemicals.” We’ll have more on that soo...
Small steps forward this week on the clean-up of the lower Passaic River, where past dumping of Agent Orange and other chemicals created a toxic mess that is now one of the nation’s largest Superfund sites. But that progress comes as one of the main companies on the hook for the work is pushing hard against a deal the EPA has made with other polluters.
The decades-long drip, drip, drip of toxic chemicals from the Price Landfill in South Jersey reached crisis levels in the early '80s when the hazardous plume threatened to taint the water supply for the Atlantic City area. The site earned an emergency response and the reputation as the most polluted Superfund site in America. Now, more than 40 years later, Price Landfill has entered a new chapter… And this time, it's helping not h...
Efforts to clean up the lower stretch of the Passaic River are getting a $150 million boost, thanks to a new settlement between the federal government and 85 likely polluters. This stretch of the river, running through Newark and nearby towns, is coated with a lining of toxic mud, tainted by decades and decades of chemical dumping. Getting it cleaned up will be difficult – and expensive. At roughly $1.8 billion, the Passaic River i...
We’re bringing you a special episode from the podcast “Damages”, which examines court cases that matter in the fight against climate change. In this episode, “Damages” host Amy Westervelt takes listeners to Minnesota, where the rights of threatened wild rice (or manoomin in the Ojibwe language) are considered in the face of efforts to build the Line 3 pipeline across the state. Check it out, and be sure to follow “Damages” wherever...
In Edgewater, a bustling urban town across the Hudson River from Manhattan, a polluted lot of a former factory sits right on the water. Today it's a Superfund site being cleaned up, set to one day become a piece of prime real estate for redevelopment. But that cleanup has created problems of its own, and as the process drags on, the threat of flooding from the river grows.
We’re bringing you a special episode from the podcast “Drilled”, which scrutinizes the powers that have long profited from unfettered fossil fuel use. In this episode, “Drilled” host Amy Westervelt takes a look at how the oil and gas industry has pushed to portray environmentalists as idealists detached from reality, in an effort to undercut campaigns against fossil fuels. Check it out, and be sure to follow “Drilled” wherever you ...
The Pinelands, a million-acre swath of pine forest dominating South Jersey, is one of America’s most unique environments. The Pinelands have always been a place prone to catch fire and today, climate change is making the area’s wildfire season more unpredictable. The fear is not only fire, but it’s impact on the area’s legacy of toxic illegal dumping.
We’re bringing you a special episode from our friends at “The Sweaty Penguin” podcast, which dives deep (with a bit of humor!) on all things climate change. In this episode, “The Sweaty Penguin” crew takes a look at the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, and what it does and does not do for the climate. Check it out, and be sure to follow “The Sweaty Penguin”, another show made possible by the Peril & Promise initiative, wherever ...
The National Lead company spent years in the 1970s recycling car batteries at a factory in rural South Jersey, haphazardly draining battery acid onto the ground. The pollution left dangerous heavy metals in the site's soil and groundwater --- a mess that is now on the verge of being cleaned up. But in an area along Delaware Bay, sea level rise is slowly pushing a new potential problem into the ground.
Former New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio, who wrote the Superfund law back in 1980, died this week at age 85. In this bonus episode, we reflect on Florio’s efforts to clean up New Jersey and America’s toxic messes, and we revisit our interview with him earlier this year.
Hazard NJ is returning with four new episodes this fall, to take fresh new looks about the relationship between the Garden State's most toxic Superfund sites and climate change. Get ready for the new shows with a look back at some highlights from our first four episodes, and keep an eye on your podcast feeds: Episode 5 drops on September 28.
It’s official: The Hackensack River is New Jersey’s 115th Superfund site. EPA officials gathered with state and local leaders this week to announce the big news, which puts the polluted lower reaches of the river in line for a major cleanup that is expected to cost billions of dollars.
The mud lining the Hackensack River is a mysterious mixture known to contain mercury, cadmium, lead, PCBs and plenty more nasty substances. Now the river is on its way to becoming New Jersey’s 115th Superfund site — and that’s not a bad thing.
Superstorm Sandy slammed up the Hackensack and surrounding Meadowlands, flooding towns and wrecking widespread damage. But the area’s wetlands likely blunted the blow, and with climate change...
In July 2005, Roger De Groat stepped outside his home in the secluded, forested community of Upper Ringwood to find a hole the size of a swimming pool where his backyard used to be. Roger’s home, like the rest in the neighborhood, sits atop an extensive system of abandoned iron mines, and sinkholes like these have opened every so often for decades.
But what's in the mines is a different kind of lingering threat. Ford Motor Comp...The chemical company Diamond Alkali, one of the nation's main producers of Agent Orange, spent years dumping chemical waste into the Passaic River and polluting Newark's Ironbound neighborhood. In the early 80's, state and federal authorities pledged to clean the mess up but today, nearly 40 years later, toxic mud still lies beneath the water. Now the cleanup is facing a $1.8 billion price tag, an uncertain timeline, and the growin...
Growing up in Bridgewater, New Jersey, Peggy Fussell has fond memories of ice skating on a local pond—that is, until she discovered that the pond was a toxic waste site.
Decades after chemical producer American Cyanamid ceased its Bridgewater operations, and was declared a Superfund Site, its toxic legacy is precariously contained in local waste ponds. As climate change fuels more intense storms in the region, these ponds ri...
New Jersey is home to the largest number of Superfund sites in the country – and while federal cleanup is underway – the bigger threat to them now is climate change. Flooding, fires, and rising sea levels could make life even harder for those who live nearby. Hazard NJ digs through the muck of each contaminated site to give a clearer picture of what the threat is and what it will take to clean it up before it’s too late. Hosted by ...
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