Drums with hazardous waste removed from industrial ruins near Paterson’s Great Falls

By JOE MALINCONICO

Paterson Press

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PATERSON – Federal authorities last month removed storage drums containing hazardous chemical from the abandoned Allied Textile Printing (ATP) site near the Great Falls, a move that local officials hope will eventually lead to the cleanup of all contamination at the location.

A report by the United States Environmental Protection Agency said that at least 12 of the 37 drums among the industrial ruins at the ATP site that were deemed “hazardous for corrosivity.” The drums contained sodium hydroxide, oxidizers and peroxide, the report said.

The seven-acre site about 700 feet downstream from the Falls contains the ruins of what once were dozens mills and other manufacturing buildings, a location that produced Colt revolvers in the 19th century and later was the birthplace of Paterson’s silk industry. The mills were closed more than 30 years ago and were ravaged by fires after that.

"One of my historian friends says that part of the ATP site is for America’s Industrial Revolution the rough equivalent of what the Roman Forum is to government,” said Leonard Zax, chairman of the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park Advisory Commission.

The ATP area is within the boundaries of the national park at the Great Falls, but federal park officials do not plan on taking over the land until the pollution is cleaned up.

“This area is enormously important…