The oil tanker ran aground under the cover of darkness, tearing a hole in the hull of the Uruguayan ship.
In the early morning hours of June 24, 1989, the disabled M/V Presidente Rivera spilled roughly 250,000 gallons of oil into the Delaware River just off of Salem County.
The spill threatened to shut down three nearby nuclear power plants as concerns rose that the oil could clog their cooling water intakes, according to news reports at the time. Hundreds of private contractors and Delaware National Guardsmen were called up to pull the sticky oil out of the river.
The oil — specifically No. 6 heating oil — was too dense to be removed using skimmers and instead had to be dealt with by hand.
''We are playing Russian roulette at this point with the shores of the United States," then-Gov. Thomas Kean said at a press conference in the days following the oil spill.
Thirty years later, the recovery continues on the banks of the Delaware.
The latest step in the decades-long work came two weeks ago, when the federal government announced a new plan to use $700,000 of settlement money from the disaster to help develop the new Cramer Hill Waterfront Park in Camden.
The money will be spent on building a new kayak launch at the park and the restoration of tidal channels and wetlands at the property, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The 1989 Presidente Rivera incident was overshadowed by the Exxon Valdez disaster, which happened just a few months earlier in Alaska. The Delaware River spill was one of three in the U.S. that weekend, spurring Kean to press Congress and President George H. W. Bush for stricter federal regulations on oil tankers.
Spending money in Camden wasn’t part of NOAA’s original remediation plans in New Jersey. A strategy developed in 1996 called for $1.1 million to be spent in the Garden State to restore a historic pier at Fort Mott State Park and to preserve and restore wetlands in Salem County and Cumberland County that are part of the Alloways Creek watershed.
But the state park pier was repaired and opened to the public years ago. And the wetlands restoration work ended up being covered as part of the cleanup from the 2004 Athos I oil spill, which left money from the Presidente Rivera incident still available.
Now, NOAA has decided that helping to pay for the Cramer Hill park is the best way to spend the remaining settlement funds.
“Coupled with the kayak launch area, natural pathways, and recreational amenities underway, the proposed restoration would also contribute to increased public access to the newly restored site,” NOAA’s new proposal reads. “When the proposed restoration activities are considered in conjunction with the other colocated restoration, the benefits exceed the original planned restoration.”
The cleanup funds are the latest infusion of cash to the Cramer Hill park development.
The state’s Office of Natural Resource Restoration is leading the effort to turn the 62-acre plot of land into a new waterfront park with views of the Philadelphia skyline.
It’ll be quite the turnaround for a tract that spent decades as a municipal landfill and then an illegal dump.
The process of giving new life to the property began in 2006, when the Salvation Army spent $59 million to construct the Kroc Community Center on an adjacent 24-acre property that had also been part of the landfill. That center opened in 2014.
The state Department of Environmental Protection has dedicated $73 million to removing hazardous pollution from the old landfill and shaping the land into the new park. The state said it welcomed NOAA’s contribution to the project.
“NOAA is a long-standing and valued partner of the [DEP] and Office of Natural Resource Restoration,” said Caryn Shinske, a DEP spokeswoman. “We thank them for supporting the project with an additional $700,000 to ensure that this project delivers all the ecological and recreational benefits envisioned for the community.”
The Cramer Hill Waterfront Park is expected to open in the fall of 2021.
NOAA is accepting public comments on its new plan through June 15. Comments can be submitted to Rich Takacs, rich.takacs@noaa.gov, with the subject line “Draft Amendment to Presidente Rivera Restoration Plan Comment.”
Read more of NJ.com’s coverage of New Jersey water issues here.
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Michael Sol Warren may be reached at mwarren@njadvancemedia.com.
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New riverfront park in N.J. to benefit from an oil spill 30 years ago - NJ.com
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