It Happened in NJ: Earth Day and the Short History of Environmentalism in Garden State

BY PETER ZABLOCKI GUEST WRITER

AREA April 22, 2023, will be the fifty-third time the American people will celebrate Earth Day. The original celebration kicked off a decade of environmentalism which led to the creation of the Environment Protection Agency, the Clean Air Act, the Surface Mining Control, and Endangered Species Act, among many others.

A moment in time when factories could no longer blow black smoke into the blue skies or dump toxic waste into local rivers, at least without facing legal repercussions. Perhaps no other state has come as far in improving its environmental blueprint as the Garden State – once known as the nation’s landfill capital. And upon closer analysis, no area has embodied the spirit of the 1970s Environmental Movement that followed the first Earth Day more so than one of the state’s great natural wonders, the Meadowlands.

The first Earth Day, which saw 20 million Americans take to the streets in pro-environ- ment demonstrations, showed the nation and government that there was passionate and deep support for environmental issues. The people of New Jersey have continued pushing that agenda ever since. Had it not been for specific environmental groups and agencies in the decades that followed, our state would look much different today. The Port Authority raised millions of dollars in the early 1950s to buy up Morris County’s Great Swamp area to build a massive airport the size of Newark International Airport.

The idea was struck down by a grassroots movement that pressured the state to turn the space into the Great Swamp Nation- al Refuge instead. Since then, two hundred forty species have been identified in the area, and thirty-nine mammal species, some considered endangered – a much different sight than thousands of airplanes flying overhead and traffic jams polluting local neighborhoods.

When the state planners and real estate developers thought up 250,000 new housing units in New Jersey’s Pinelands in the 1960s, the then Governor imposed a moratorium on building development by introducing and pushing the Pinelands Protection Act through the state’s legislature. Yet, the Garden State’s biggest success story is the Meadowlands – a

Food Collection Dedication

AREA - Blessed Mother Seton

Council 5410, Knight of Columbus, in Flanders, recently dedicated their ongoing weekly food drive to the memory of late member Harry Bond with a plaque to be displayed at the council hall. Harry saw a need a few years ago at the Mt. Olive Food Pantry and initiated a weekly food collection to assist. The council has delivered over 14,000 lbs. of goods there in each of the past 2 years. (l to r, recorder Mike Pucilowski, Grand Knight Peter Terrafranca, Harry’s wife Danette Bond, District Deputy Bill Grant).

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vast area of unfilled marshes and, at one time, the tristate’s most extensive dumping ground. Someone once described it as a “swampy, mosquito-infested jungle, where rusting auto bodies, demolition rubble, industrial oil slicks, and cattails merge in an unholy union.”

As per a past North Jersey article, a 1969 study by the health department found that 5,000 tons of waste were brought into the Meadowlands daily from 118 New Jersey municipalities to the 51 landfills in the area that covered 1,900 acres. Still, the wake-up call came in October 1973 when a terrible combination of inverted air mass, steam from a local power plant, and a landfill fire reduced visibility along a stretch of New Jersey Turnpike to zero. Nine people lost their lives in a massive sixty-six-car crash, leading to the National Transportation Safety Board pressuring the state to clean up the area. Within the next two decades, local environmental agencies, including the Hackensack Riverkeeper and the New Jersey Sierra Club, joined various federal agencies to strike deals with development companies to preserve equal track of land to those they proposed to develop. This was the case with the more recent American Mall, which saw the state permitting the Mills Corporation to develop its mega-mall and amusement park in exchange for a $27 million grant and a plan to preserve the area around it.

After decades of unregulated waste dumping, the Meadowlands has fought back to become one of New Jersey’s most incredible natural wonders and home to nearly three hundred bird species and an additional hundred marine life species. Apart from being one of the state’s principal economic hubs with its sports complex and the American mall, the Meadowlands now contains 3,500 acres of protected wetlands and only one 100-acre operating landfill. And although many people drive past it today, few see the real Meadowlands. The best way to experience the area’s natural hidden beauty is by the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission’s boat tours or nature-guided walks along eight miles of walking trails.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the first Earth Day in 1970 did much to transform public attitudes toward cleaner earth. A poll conducted the following year showed a 2,500 percent increase from the year prior in the American public declaring that protecting the environment was an important goal. So as we celebrate yet another Earth Day, we can appreciate the 1970s Environmental Movement’s impact on our state. For if not for some key decisions with the environment in mind, the Garden State would surely look much different today.

Peter Zablocki is the co-host of the History Teachers Talking Podcast. For more information, visit www.peterzablocki. com.

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