Heavy winds kick up dust storm on west side of Jersey City

Thursday, December 23, 2010, 6:04 PM
By Brett Wilshe/The Jersey Journal

Heavy winds blowing across the Hackensack River kicked up a wicked dust storm on the West Side of Jersey City this morning.

"It was a little scary, it looked like a blizzard," said Jerry Alexatos, sales manager at NJ State Auto Auction at the corner of Sip Avenue and Route 1 & 9.

The dust was coming from the old PJP landfill, an area stretching from Route 1 & 9 Truck South to the Hackensack River under the Pulaski Skyway.

Fill material is being there used to cover the remediated brownfield, said state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Larry Ragonese.

Alexatos said the dust storm lasted for several hours, ending around 11 a.m. when workers used water to wet the soil.

"I was stuck in traffic and this stuff was all over the place," said one Jersey City woman. "My throat is hoarse from breathing it in. Whatever it is, it can't be good."

The cleanup of the 84-acre site is being overseen by the NJDEP and the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection. The county has plans to build a nine-hole golf course on the site after the remediation is complete.

There were no reported accidents or injuries caused by the dust storm.
"We had just cleaned all the cars in our lot," said Alexatos. "Now they're completely covered in dirt."

He added that some customers feared the dust was toxic, but that wasn't the case, Ragonese said.

On of the great things about living in Jersey City is the opportunity to encounter chemicals one might otherwise never encounter in the wild in a lifetime.

It is happening again. Keep your windows shut, this morning I have been watching random large clouds of dirt rising around and just north of the Rt 7 Hackensack drawbridge. The dirt is wafting SE into Downtown like a fog after it gets kicked up. I cant tell if it is coming from the power plant, the Standard Chlorine superfund site, or somewhere else?

Dust storms?? Wow, that really is the West Side!

I love the smell of chromium in the morning.

PJP is a mess but i am pretty sure they removed the top soil long ago and capped it. The dust might be OK...hopefully.

Construction... there are mountains of gravel, sand, and clay used to fortify the foundations of the new pylons and roads being built.

There is also exposed loose soil beneath the Pulasky Skyway.

I saw the dust cloud a few days ago and drove through it while navigating that awful circle.

Must be a real mess today.

You may not want to hear this, but it's coming from that big, open field just south of the Pulaski Skyway that was formerly the 87-acre PJP Landfill Superfund site. It's scary to think what might be lurking in that dust. They should have planted some grasses or some other vegetation to contain the dirt. Now every time there's wind, it just blows across the city.

When it is really windy I consistently see a dust cloud in one area of JC. It looks to be somewhere near Tonnelle circle. Today it looks like a big sandstorm/beige fog. The sunlight is diffracted south to Bayonne and SINY from my perspective. Is this a result of the construction, power plant dust, something else???