Friday. September 9, 2022

States always vie for “the most,” sometimes another word for “the biggest,” in their descriptions.  The most scenic, the biggest, the most parks, the most lakes, but few would want to have New Jersey’s designation:  having the most Superfund sites in the Nation.  Added to the list is the Lower Hackensack River.

The full Hackensack River starts in Congers, New York, and is navigable down to Hackensack. The “Lower” part flows from Paramus down into waters near Newark. This was once a beautiful river with estuaries but in the 19th century, seen as little more than a swamp, the Meadowlands were filled in – by hand cart, mind you so that factories could be established along the river.

The factories dumped all kinds of stuff into the river, including arsenic, chromium, lead, and mercury, among other contaminants.  It’s a wonder that any fish or wildlife can exist in its waters or along its shores.  Now, the companies that benefitted from polluting it will foot much of the bill, or, at least, that’s the plan.

Prayer for the Day

Your voice is over the waters and in the heavens, O God,    

     Calling forth the life that we share with all creation;               

Your light shines into the darkness of our despair,

     Giving us hope for a future open and clean.

Grant that your Spirit flashes as flames of fire

     So we may restore the earth in all its beauty.

In the name of the One who walked among the lilies,

    Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.             

Thoughts for the Day

We must begin thinking like a river if we are to leave a legacy of beauty and life for future generations.
          - David Brower, environmentalist, Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth (1912-2000)

A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself.

           - Laura Gilpin, photographer (1891-1979)

You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it;

   The river of God is full of water;

You provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it.

   You water its furrows abundantly, setting its ridges,

      Softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.

            Psalm 65: 9-10

Draining the Meadowlands,July 1868