The Dirty Truth About That Other Jersey Shore 

Grew up in Delawanna, loved that river as a kid. Played down there at yanticaw pond and the third river area. Never sw

Most of the garbage comes from upstream from the Garfield dam as the Passaic weaves through many towns and the City of Paterson. Then it dumps into the tidal waters below the dam. The tidal waters go back and forth and do not drain properly into Newark Bay. So garbage seems to get stuck in this section from the dam to the bay.

As i was saying, never swam in it, heard stories. They actually had a swim beach down in Lyndhurst where hundreds of people took a dip. That was the 20's and thirties. Those people were all our grandparents. Who knows how many got sick. It was paradise here 200 years ago. What a loss, what a shame.

Terrific reporting, camera work: encapsulates wages of industrial revolution in U.S. If we could clean up the Hudson, why not the Passaic River? A worthwhile dream.

"useful tool to jump starting a new country, and now it's a monument to the price we had to pay to do that" --yes we're talking about a river

The kititiny mountains in nj are cleaner then the catskills much different place with clean water and mountain streams

I grew up in the early 60s right by West side Park which was somewhat decent but there were still a lot of garbage back then. It just amazes me how people have no regards to keeping anything clean they just throw garbage everywhere very sad

I've never heard a river called an "intestine".....lol Passaic Falls looks nice.

bro passaic has changed a lot 😳😳

Passaic still has a healthy fish population

Ridiculous. Those companies made the river uninhabitable

It’s highly possible to clean with a lot of money.

If you take a walk across any new jersey parking lot, you will find at least 12 decomposing batteries. Multiply that number by fifty thousand and you will find the earth is screwed. We are selfish beings that will leave a heavy burden on our great grandkids.

Everything that is talked about is below the Falls, where all the major industry is. Barely a mention of the upper Passaic where it is pretty beautiful but not as headline grabbing or sensational. Everyone interviewed is still spouting the same old cliches. Take a drive some day and see for yourselves.

Eewww.

Not the "price we had to pay"; the price those people chose all of us to pay.

Its so funny, they talk clean up of the river, when really all man has to do is stop poluting it and it will slowly clean itself. But the problem is in so many river across this country, and now is growing other countries looking to gain from economic prosperity. China is now making their rivers like this one. Mexico has already done so. Soon, we will not have any clean river systems without tcdd, or mercury, PCPS, Dioxins, etc. Thanks NPR for reporting the truth about our past dumping.

Dirty jersey

This piece was poorly written -- childish.