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"Council rains on Bergen waterworks compromise - February 22,2002"

by ANA M. ALAYA

Star-Ledger

And it has been about as long that historical preservationists in Bergen County and nationwide have been lobbying to reopen those doors to the past.

But a move to turn the plant into a museum, showcasing what they see as a monument to New Jersey's Industrial Revolution, has been the subject of bitter debate with environmentalists and government planners who believe the dilapidated buildings stand in the way of what could be a sorely needed 64-acre nature preserve in the middle of the Hackensack River in Oradell.

Yesterday, that ongoing battle came to a head when the New Jersey Historic Sites Council sent Bergen County planners back to the drawing board on what they had proposed as a compromise project for the preservationists and environmentalists.

"This is a very contentious issue," Historic Sites Council member Margaret Nordstrom said during the meeting in Trenton. She admonished the county officials and the Water Works Conservancy, a citizens preservation group, for failing to work together to come up with an acceptable project.
"I hope both parties bury the hatchet, and not in each other," she added.

Bergen County officials failed to persuade the council to let them demolish all but some remnants of the filtration plant and pumping station, and turn the 13-acre Van Buskirk Island in Oradell, where it stands, into a county park.

Essentially, the council said the county did not conduct a thorough review of the historic site under the secretary of the interior's standards for historic preservation before marking the buildings for demolition.

Because the waterworks site is listed as a state landmark, the council must weigh in and send its recommendation to the state environmental protection commissioner, who will make a final determination on the county's plan in mid-March.

"The county hasn't done their homework," said Pat Pizzini Huizing, executive director of Preservation New Jersey, which supports saving the buildings. "What they proposed would completely alter the experience of what's there."

Huizing's organization is part of a state and national coalition to save the waterworks, which recently formed in opposition to Bergen County's proposed demolition plans. They say the site is one of the last remaining 19th-century water and filtration plants and a monument to the nation's technological heritage.

"It's New Jersey's claim to fame, something that other states don't have," said Adrian Scott Fine, senior program associate with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Bergen County officials have been struggling over the future of the waterworks since United Water gave it to them in 1993 with $1.1 million to help maintain it.

At first, Bergen County Executive William "Pat" Schuber backed a plan to turn part of the island into a county park and then turn over the plant to the Water Works Conservancy for use as a museum and a science center.

But that plan fell through when Oradell officials declined responsibility for the site over concerns that the conservancy's efforts to raise $15 million to support the project would fail.

Under the county's $9.1 million compromise plan, eventually embraced by environmental groups, the waterworks would in effect be turned into a Rome-style ruin. The shell of one filtration building would be saved to serve as a backdrop for a small amphitheater, and the four-story Georgian brick pump house would be turned into a partially enclosed garden -- with the plant's old steam engine preserved within the walls. Interpretive tours would guide visitors through the site and provide a history of the plant.

Conservancy officials, however, say the county plan would destroy too much.

"One thing the council made clear is that this is an extraordinary national historic site and that the county has failed to realize" that, said Maggie Harrer, president of the Water Works Conservancy, a group of citizens, business people and others trying to preserve the buildings.

Under the conservancy's proposal, the waterworks buildings would be restored and renovated into a museum and environmental, education, cultural and research centers.

But Bergen County officials argue it would be unsafe to renovate old industrial buildings for public use in a flood plain, and that repairing the riverbank wetlands while preserving part of the structures would be a safer compromise.

"It is not good public policy to pour millions of taxpayer dollars into an historic restoration project in the middle of a flood plain and then invite people into potentially dangerous situations," said Schuber, who said he was disappointed with the council's decision.

Michael Herson, chairman of the Environmental Committee of Oradell, who has lobbied along with Hackensack Riverkeeper Bill Sheehan to turn the site into a passive park, was likewise disappointed with the council's rejection of the county's plan for open space. The site, he said, is an open space treasure, a quiet oasis for turtles and birds in the concrete-jammed region.

"What happened is not surprising because the council bases their decisions on bricks and buildings," Herson said. "They're holding the park hostage to the buildings. We thought we had a good compromise plan."

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