Amy Souers, American Rivers

Amy Souers is online editor for American Rivers in Washington, D.C. She is on a two-month cross-country road trip exploring America's rivers.

I have to admit I was pretty ignorant about New Jersey's Passaic River. I thought it was little more than a cement-lined urban channel with lots of toxic and chemical pollution problems. But that's not the case at all. Ella Filippone of the Passaic River Coalition took me on a grand tour of the watershed today. She showed me that while this river faces a variety of threats, its cultural and historic heritage rival any in the nation.

The Passaic flows in the shape of an inverted "U" through New Jersey and empties into Newark Bay. The 935-acre watershed stretches from the headwaters in the forested New Jersey Highlands to the wetlands of the central valley to the heavily urbanized lower valley, with cities like Newark and Paterson. Over 3 million people live in the watershed.

Our first stop today was Millington Gorge, a little stretch of the Passaic River that the Army Corps of Engineers wanted to dam in 1969. Ella and I walked out on the railroad bridge that crosses the river. There were no spectacular rapids, no breathtaking cliffs -- this was a very quiet and peaceful spot, lush and leafy with trees thick along the banks. The fact that this part of the river could have been blocked and flooded by a dam made it all the more special now.

Ella is still trying to get an Army Corps flood tunnel deauthorized. She said the 21-mile-long tunnel would capture floodwaters and pipe them out to Newark Bay, wreaking havoc on the river's natural cycles.

After seeing the Gorge, we drove to St. Joseph's Villa, a Catholic retreat. Here on Long Hill you get a great view of the watershed and the Highlands. A very long time ago, this hill was actually an island in the middle of the glacial Lake Passaic. We looked out over the landscape and tried to imagine it all covered with water.

Next, Ella took me to a place where water does cover much of the land periodically -- a community called Lincoln Park. These houses are built in the river's floodplain. When the river overflows its banks, homes are flooded. Many of the houses here are raised up on stilts and cinderblocks.

Hoffman Grove is another collection of houses that is regularly flooded. The community began in the 1930s as a sporting club for city people who wanted to fish and boat. After World War II the houses were winterized and people began living here year-round. "Every time it rains, it floods. This is the worst in the watershed," Ella said. The Passaic River Coalition is helping to solve flooding problems by acquiring chronically flooded homes like these. The group helped buy out 138 homes in 1995 with money provided through New Jersey's Blue Acres program.

The most memorable part of the day was our visit to the Great Falls in the town of Paterson. I come from the Potomac River and our Great Falls are pretty amazing. But the Passaic's falls are the second-highest on the East Coast (second only to Niagara). And here, you can get so close to the thundering water that you feel the spray on your face.

"They're not just the Great Falls, they're the great Great Falls. They're the icon of this river system," says Ella.

A statue of Alexander Hamilton overlooks the river here. In the late 1700s, wishing for America to achieve independence from British manufacturers, he pushed forward the damming and harnessing of the falls. The water, diverted down into a series of raceways through town, turned the mill wheels and powered the factories. Many of the old brick buildings still stand today.

Ella wishes the park around the falls would be refurbished. She doesn't mince her words. "It's disgraceful! It's an embarrassment!" she says. She would love to tear down the ugly black fences that block views, put seats back on the benches, trim some of the overgrown weeds. With a little care, the falls and park could become a real attraction and a source of community pride.

In the 1960s the Passaic was one of the most polluted rivers in the U.S., thanks to its long industrial legacy and poor sewage treatment facilities. But today, in large part because of the Passaic River Coalition's efforts, water quality is better than ever. Glenn Hutton, the volunteer at the little two-room Great Falls visitor center, told us that people are catching northern pike and brown trout at the base of the falls.

Shad might soon be swimming up here, too. One of our last stops of the day was Dundee Dam, the first barrier the fish encounter as they try to migrate upriver. Ella is working to install a fish passage here so the fish can reach upstream habitat.

Tomorrow I will travel upstream myself, to New England!