What Happened to the Great Falls? Just Some Spring Cleaning

Picture provided by the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commision

PATERSON, NJ - Tourists who came to Paterson on Tuesday to see the majesty of the cascading Great Falls left disappointed. They had picked the wrong day.

On Tuesday, the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission’s began conducting its annual cleanup of the area.

Cleaning up the Great Falls is not as simple as it sounds. Sewerage commission crews diverted the flow of the Passaic River through an adjacent hydroelectric plant, which essentially shut off the 77-foot waterfall.

That allowed about 40 volunteers from Great Falls Youth Corps, Paterson Youth Council, Americorps, the New Jersey Youth Corps and employees of the sewerage commission to move into areas where the river normally flows to remove debris. Last year, they got rid of about 10 tons.

“Today we stand at the riverbank of the Passaic River as it approaches the Great Falls,’’ said Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission Executive Director Wayne Forrest. “Generally it is rapid flowing, but today it is pretty much dried up. It is our statutory mission since the creation of the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission in the city of Paterson’s legislature of 1902 to get down to the riverbed and remove pollution.”

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