EPA Approves Blueprint for Cleanup of Berry’s Creek in Bergen County, N.J.
Bergen County, N.J. - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved the cleanup blueprint for the Berry’s Creek Study Area (BCSA) in Bergen County, New Jersey. The blueprint covers the cleanup work to be performed in the tidal creek and surrounding wetlands at the Ventron/Velsicol Superfund site and also the waterways portion of the nearby Universal Oil Products (UOP) Superfund site. The two systems are directly connected.
“Before we can start work on a complex site like this, we have to first complete the extensive engineering design work that serves as a detailed blueprint, so this is a big step toward cleaning up this site,” said EPA Regional Administrator Michael Martucci. “Berry’s Creek has been severely impacted for generations, and this project will finally begin to turn the tide for the community and the environment.”
The approved blueprint, developed by the Berry’s Creek Group of potentially responsible parties under EPA oversight, provides crucial details needed to implement cleanup plans that EPA selected in 2018 for the BCSA and in 2019 for the UOP waterways. It explains how decades of mercury and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination will be addressed through targeted sediment removal, capping and habitat restoration.
EPA expects this cleanup work to begin late 2026 and take approximately four years to complete. The cleanup will include:
- Removing contaminated sediment from key areas of the BCSA and UOP waterways.
- Installing protective caps to prevent mercury and PCBs from re-entering the water.
- Replanting marshes and restoring habitat once work is complete.
Berry’s Creek is a tributary to the Hackensack River, traveling through Carlstadt, East Rutherford, Lyndhurst, Moonachie, Rutherford, Teterboro, and Wood-Ridge, and includes approximately six miles of waterway, tributaries to the creek, and approximately 750 acres of marshes. The major contaminants in the Berry’s Creek Study Area are mercury, methyl mercury, PCBs, and chromium, which are at high levels in the water and sediment. The areas selected for this cleanup address a major portion of the contamination within Berry’s Creek, which acts as a source of contamination to the other areas of the site, as well as to animal life.
Berry’s Creek has long been subject to state fish consumption advisories due to unsafe mercury and PCB levels. These advisories remain in place until cleanup goals are met, and monitoring confirms conditions have improved.
Visit the Ventron/Velsicol Superfund site profile page and the Universal Oil Products Superfund site profile page for additional background and site documents.
Follow EPA Region 2 on X, Instagram, and visit our Facebook page. For more information about EPA Region 2, visit our website.
26-003