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Chevron Wetland Restoration (2008)
LOCATION: Perth Amboy, Middlesex County NJ
BACKGROUND: Chevron operated the Perth Amboy facility as a 368 acre full-scale refinery from 1946 – 1983 were refinery operations consisted of liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline, fuel oil, asphalt and sulfur. In 1983, Chevron changed its operations at the refinery to an asphalt refinery. In November 2005, Chevron entered into a settlement with ONRR. As part of the settlement, Chevron agreed to create approximately 11 acres of tidally flowed wetlands habitat consisting of approximately 15 acres of low marsh, 5 acres of high marsh and 1 acre of upland buffer within the footprint of the former North Field Basin (NFB) which was part of the refinery stormwater run-off management system. The NFB Wetlands Design Plan was submitted as a condition of the settlement.
PURPOSE: To create wetlands that will achieve 85 percent cover within a period of five full growing seasons which contain less than 10% invasive species in order to provide adequate hydrology and habitat for wetland associated wildlife.
SUMMARY: To achieve the desired grades presented in the approved NFB Wetlands Design Plan, a total of approximately 133,000 cubic yards of clean fill material was brought on-site and backfilled into the project area. In March 2008, 480 upland shrubs were planted on the southern wall of the NFB wetlands to serve as an upland buffer to the wetlands. On January 2010, construction of the 12 NFB wetland islands commenced. Chevron brought in approximately 12,000 cubic yards of clean sand material to serve as the wetland planting substrate. Following construction completion, approximately 6475 high marsh and low marsh plugs were introduced into the wetlands in June 2010. An additional 150 upland shrubs were added to the southern wall to connect the previously planted uplands with the final elevation of the wetlands.
Due to a high volume of plant mortality which was noted in the spring of 2011, particularly regarding high marsh species, 2500 high marsh plugs, 500 low marsh plugs, and 25 shrubs in the uplands were replaced. In the spring of 2013, the south bank of the NFB wetlands was hydroseeded with a conservation seed mix to reduce erosion and increase competition of invasive species.
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