The Industrial Waterfront: Prosperity Left a Cleanup Bill
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Transcript
The industrial city that made jobs also left environmental costs that lasted long after the paychecks stopped.
ASARCO operated a copper-refining complex on Perth Amboy's waterfront from 1901 until 1976.
Copper mattered to electrification, construction and modern manufacturing.
Refining it created economic value.
It also created waste.
New Jersey later documented contamination at the former ASARCO property involving arsenic, antimony and lead in soil and groundwater.
Cleanup became part of a large waterfront redevelopment challenge.
This is not unique to Perth Amboy.
Across the American Northeast, industrial waterfronts were built in eras when environmental standards were weak or nonexistent by modern expectations.
Cities benefited from jobs and tax base.
Workers and nearby residents absorbed pollution risks.
After industry left, local and state governments inherited land that could not simply be turned into parks or housing without expensive remediation.
The modern temptation is to divide the story into a bad industrial past and a good clean future.
That is too easy.
Industrial jobs supported generations of families.
Copper, terra cotta, petroleum-related products and other manufactured goods connected Perth Amboy to national growth.
Environmental damage was also real.
Both belong in the accounting.
For visitors, the waterfront's changing appearance can hide how recently heavy industry dominated sections of the city.
For locals, redevelopment creates another question:
Who benefits after cleanup increases land value?
Environmental justice is not only about removing contamination.
It is also about whether communities that endured industrial burdens can remain and benefit when land becomes desirable again.
Perth Amboy's waterfront history begins with ferries and colonial trade.
It does not end there.
Modern industry transformed the shore just as radically as the colonial port once had.