Palmerton, PA
Imagine my surprise when, on the last full day of my vacation in the mountains of the Lehigh Valley in Eastern Pennsylvania, I discovered that the town in which I had been staying, Palmerton, PA, was the site of one of the largest EPA Superfund clean-up sites east of the Mississippi River. This is a story about contamination, but also a story of hope and restoration.
Sure, I had noticed that the ridge behind the house, Stony Ridge, was covered with dead trees, that the mountain in front of the house, Blue Mountain/Kittatinny Ridge had huge spots that were completely devoid of vegetation, and we had discussed our confusion about why we had not seen any mammals on the ridge (no chipmunks, no squirrels, no deer) but I hadn’t completely connected the dots until the last day. The new, shrubby habitat that was growing on the ridge was actually great for one endangered species, the American Kestrel, whose population has plummeted in recent years. We were blessed every evening by the sight of several Kestrels perched around a shrubby field on the upper tips of the dead trees.
New Jersey Zinc
It seems Palmerton has a checkered past. The town was established in 1898 as a company town for New Jersey Zinc, and named for then president, Stephen S. Palmer. It was located at the junction of the Lehigh River and the Aquishicola Creek to take advantage of this proximity to the anthracite coal being mined just to the north and the zinc mines in Franklin, NJ.
It is evident from the name “Aquishicola” that this land was the home of Native Americans from the Lenni Lenape tribe until the time of European settlement. The taking of this land from the native tribes was the subject of a contentious dispute, called The Walking Purchase, in which the Lenape tribes felt they had been horribly wronged by the European participants.
New Jersey Zinc opened two zinc smelting plants in the town of Palmerton. Although several garment manufacturing plants also came to Palmerton, the zinc plants were the primary employer of the town’s residents. These plants were in operation from 1898 until 1980, when the main plant was shut down because of a poor zinc market and new environmental regulations. The smaller plant continues operations today in a reduced capacity, processing electric arc furnace dust into zinc calcine.
One of the first EPA Superfund Sites
Due to the geography of this site (between two mountain ridges) and a lack of pollution control technology at the time, pollution from these zinc smelters destroyed vegetation on 3,000 acres surrounding the town, much of it on the Kittatinny Ridge at Lehigh Gap. In 1983, the site was designated one of the nation’s first Superfund sites, making it the target of a U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandated clean-up. Toxic heavy metals from the smelting contaminated the top 6-8 inches of topsoil, rendering it sterile.
This contamination had a devastating impact, not only on the vegetation, but on salamanders, frogs, toads, birds, and mammals, as well as contaminating the groundwater and local streams. Over 300 homes also had to be decontaminated as part of the clean-up because of high levels of lead and arsenic.
Now, I know at this point you are thinking “what can this possibly have to do with my garden?” And I want to share the hopeful side of this story: the restoration. Keep in mind that the smelter was shut down in 1980, and the deforestation, erosion, and lack of vegetation from the contamination is still in evidence now, 29 years later (remember all those dead trees I noticed).
Hope and Restoration: the Lehigh Gap Nature Center
Beginning in 2002, the Lehigh Gap Nature Center was established and has embarked on an ambitious restoration plan which has three phases: 1) acquire more than 750 acres of land along the Kittatinny Ridge at Lehigh Gap; 2) restore degraded portions of the refuge and manage habitats for maximum biodiversity; and 3) open the Refuge to the public and create a community nature center for environmental education, ecological research, and outdoor recreation.
I’m happy to report that Lehigh Gap Nature Center now owns this land, restoration is under way, and the nature center is being built and will be opening soon. This organization has devoted itself to the ecological restoration and habitat enhancement along this mountain ridge, the protection of this hawk migration corridor (Hawk Mountain Sanctuary and Bake Oven Knob Hawkwatch are located along this ridge), promoting wildlife-friendly habitat gardens, promoting sound land use, providing public education on environmental issues, and advocating preservation of biodiversity.
Using innovative methods of planting, the Nature Center, in partnership with EPA and responsible party Viacom International (now CBS operations), was able to establish native, warm-season, zinc tolerant, prairie grasses on its part of the Superfund site. These methods have been used on most of the other land in the Palmerton Superfund area, which is becoming green again for the first time in 50 years. Research is now under way to study the progression of ecological succession from these prairie grasses to an environment which has re-established fully functioning ecosystem services.
You can view a slideshow of the restoration at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center site. Keep in mind that this restoration is enormously expensive, and the Nature Center is dependent on member contributions. Please support them if you can.
Follow updates of the clean-up at the PA EPA site .
Hope in Your Conservation Garden
The above story is an illustration of human action gone horribly wrong to the environment, but also a story of hope and restoration (albeit enormously expensive). Your Conservation Garden can also become a story of hope and restoration: a giving back to the environment and the wildlife that depends on it. What are you doing to help wildlife in your garden?
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About Carole Sevilla Brown
Carole, thanks for sharing this story. It’s a hopeful one, but it is also sad. As long as the costs to the environment are separated from the monetary gain from extraction these kinds of disaster areas will keep on being created. I don’t have any answers. I wish I did.
Here’s hoping though that folks are becoming more aware of how to garden with less chemicals and for the benefit of nature. Growing your own food is a great way to remain aware of what you are doing to the land. Who would want to dump waste then grow their food in that spot. Wherever the waste goes is somewhere no-one would want to grow their food.
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What a great post. I like that you’ve given the backstory and explained that nearly 3 decades later, the blight is still apparent – however, all is not lost and hope remains.
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@Melissa, yes hope remains, but the cost is daunting. It’s so great that some folks have made this their life mission to restore lost habitats.
@Alison, yes growing food is a great idea. However, I cringed to see tomato plants being grown in this soil. Kind of scary that the topsoil was contaminated below 8″, but folks don’t seem bothered by that at all. Also it’s a shame that we are disconnected from the full cost of actions/industries that cause such harm. But cheers to those who are fighting to make it better!
Thank you for sharing this story. It makes you wonder what the health consequences have been for the people of this area… and their children… and their children’s children. I really hope we don’t continue to make the same mistakes and put our children’s and our environment’s health at risk for the sake of “progress.”
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Wendy, this whole story is just very frightening. I know that the top priority for house clean-ups by EPA and Superfund were those in which pregnant women and children were living due to the extremely high levels of lead and arsenic. I’m not sure that all of the homes have yet been cleaned, but the above US Fish and Wildlife link is a great source for seeing what the current status of the whole project is. I know that 5 “responsible parties” have agreed to pay a settlement of $21 million, but that is a mere drop in the bucket compared to what this clean-up and restoration will ultimately cost. That just seems like a crime to me. But, I want to remain hopeful because some great groups have gotten involved in the restoration and water clean-up.
Carole, great that you shared this story. I visited the Lehigh Gap Nature Center in May 09 (gave a program on “Backyard Habitat”) and was hugely impressed with their restoration efforts in only 6 years from moonscape to lush habitat. Dan Kunkle, the Board of Directors, and their terrific volunteers are driving forces!