Expanding the Scope of Restoration Opportunities for the Passaic River-Newark Bay Complex

Carl W. Alderson (1), Ben Shorr, (2), Reyhan Mehran (3), Eli Reinharz (4)

(1) NOAA Fisheries Restoration Center, JJ Howard Marine Laboratory, 74 Magruder Road, Highlands, NJ 07732, (732)-872-3087, (732) 872-3077, carl.alderson@noaa.gov. http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/habitat/restoration/

(2) NOAA Coastal Protection and Restoration Division, 7600 Sand Point Way, NE, Bldg 4, Rm 2117,
Seattle, WA 98115,  (206)526-4654, (206)526-6865, benjamin.shorr@noaa.gov http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/

(3) NOAA Coastal Protection and Restoration Division, 290 Broadway, Rm 1831, New York, NY, 10007, (212) 637-3257, (212)637-4207, reyhan.mehran@noaa.gov, http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/

(4) NOAA Damage Assessment Center, 1305 East West Hwy, Silver Spring, MD 20910,  (301)713-3038 x193, (301)713-4387, eli.reinharz@noaa.gov, http://www.darrp.noaa.gov/

The Federal and State partners working on the Lower Passaic River Restoration Area (EPA, the Corps, NJDOT, NJDEP, USFWS, and NOAA), to date, have been identifying potential restoration opportunities within the watershed of the lower 17-miles of the Passaic River including some, but not all, associated tributary watersheds.  Restoration opportunities of the main stem Passaic watershed above the Dundee Dam are absent, as are those down river of the Passaic, beginning with Newark Bay and the Kills.  The habitat opportunities most often reported in connection with restoration of the Lower Passaic River consist largely of wetland and riparian types with the existing land uses of those locations consisting largely of parklands, brownfields, existing and future NJ Green Acres acquisitions, and other fallow lands.  

Opportunities for restoration of submerged bottomlands, for the most part, have not been evaluated.  These habitat types consist of weed beds, shellfish beds, mudflats, benthic structures and bottom sediments, and fish passage.  The mapped locations for these habitat types would consist extensively of open waterways, specifically the former industrial and commercial marine navigational channel, which now caters only to light vessels, maintenance, and recreational traffic.  Some of this opportunity could be identified in narrow near shore shallow water zones adjacent to the navigation channel.  Submerged bottomlands have been largely absent from the analyses because: (1) reconnaissance of bottom conditions is more challenging to report on and (2) successful restoration of these habitat types in urban waterways is widely considered to be difficult and next to impossible.  Technical infeasibility is often cited.  Proposed projects are often out of regulatory compliance and may interfere with other uses, particularly navigational uses and other fisheries protection initiatives.