Urban Consequences

Historically, wetlands were considered wastelands. Even the names given to them, such as swamp, bog, and mire, developed bad connotations. Some of these negative meanings have worked their way into everyday language. I am swamped at the office. I feel bogged down. I am mired in work.

As early as the 17th century in North America, the majority of settlers saw wetlands as places to be avoided. This was due, in part, to the fact that these areas were difficult if not impossible to build upon or farm. Wetlands also became associated with sickness. People believed that the “bad air” in these environments could cause diseases like malaria. While the threat of getting malaria from mosquitoes was very real, it was not the wetlands themselves that caused the disease.

Over time, a major effort developed to rid the country of wetlands and make these areas productive. George Washington and a group of investors tried to drain the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia to convert it to farmland without success. In later years, massive attempts at draining and filling swamps had devastating effects and led to the destruction of many wetlands. Urban wetlands remained under constant pressure to be made “useful” because of their close proximity to large populations. In the 20th century, many of these sites located near major cities became dumping grounds for both heavy industry and household garbage.

Municipal Boon Results in Spread of Landfills
"The concept with the land filling was, number one, a place to put waste: it was convenient, it was close to the population that was generating so much of it, and so the meadows was right here, handy, to do it. And it was spreading it out rather than piling it up, the thought being, "We’ll fill all this wasteland in, as they called it, "and we’ll have development on top of that and that’ll help keep the taxes low." So a lot of the town officials years ago viewed it as a boon to the town to do that, never realizing that there’d be costly environmental clean up bills down the road."
– Don Smith, Retired Senior Naturalist with the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission

Unregulated Garbage Dumping
"There was a lot of garbage dumping going on. There was always an acrid smell in the air from the garbage burning and rotting out there because in those days they didn’t even cover the garbage up when they got done dumping it, they would just drive away and leave it to rot. All we had was primary sewage treatment, and only when that was working, and it didn’t really work,and so it made the Hackensack River really a nasty place. When I was a kid you’d fall into the river and then you had a stink on you for days, it was hard to even get it off. Running around out in the marsh, the tide would come in, and a place where you were able to walk a half hour earlier, all of a sudden there’s water there and you have to wade through the water to get home, and so Mom was always catching us, no matter what we told her we were doing, she always knew when we were out in the swamp or we were down by the river."
– Bill Sheehan, Hackensack Riverkeeper