A massive redevelopment project has been announced in Sayreville at the site of a former brownfield.

The announcement comes as leaders in state government announced that that Brownfield has been almost completely remediated.

A 15 year process that Ted Goldberg explains paved the way for this new mixed use project on Savio's waterfront.

Sayreville Industrial past includes widespread dumping and pollution.

The brownfield site, just south of the Driscoll Bridge, is one infamous example.

As the national lead company dumped acids and heavy metals for nearly half a century.

The bricks used to build the Empire State Building were made here in service down at the Seren Fisher Brick right down the street.

The pigments for paint in Calvin's homes were made right here where we stand today.

Yet with the decline of these industries, barren spaces were left behind.

Reclaiming formerly contaminated lands is a vital part of a sustainable future in New Jersey.

We're a smaller state with a long industrial past.

But we can't afford to let our space go to waste.

A multibillion dollar project to revitalize the area has endured numerous delays, but leaders today were still optimistic about the Riverton project, which is slated to bring businesses and more than 2000 residential units to this empty looking area.

By promoting environmental health, we promote our economic health because the two are so inextricably linked.

You look at an empty field and it doesn't seem particularly exciting.

But but the future is and the possibilities and the things that will result from it.

While speakers and leaders had a lot of optimism today, they were light on specifics.

There's no update on when businesses might break ground around here.

And as for the cleanup itself, not a lot of specifics there on when it might end, though.

Some areas of concern are remediated faster than others.

But it is not as though at a site that is as large as this nearly 500 acre site, that every inch of the site is contaminated.

If you looked into the record of this cleanup, that there are areas that are very near complete.

So for the whole thing to be completed, still a ways to go.

It is still it is still some ways to go.

The DEP and EPA have been remediating this area for 15 years, concentrating mostly on land.

DEP commissioner Shawn LaTourette says the Raritan River hasn't been a major target for cleanup.

There are near-shore remediation efforts that occur sort of in in mudflats and areas where the water meets the land.

Lots of threat, says other parts of the river are being cleaned as part of federal Superfund projects.

Some environmental say that's not good enough.

Here we are about to have thousands of new residents and customers coming into these stores and into the area.

And yet we still have a river that has not even begun to be remediated from the heavy metals and the sulfuric acid and other waste.

Greg Ramo leads the nonprofit New York New Jersey Baykeeper.

They've sued National led to test the Raritan River for chemicals, and the lawsuit has dragged on for 40 years without a day in court.

Ramos says national lead has agreed to test the water at some point in the future.

It's critical to clean the water because people will still be exposed to certain levels of contamination when they use the river.

Anybody who catches fish in the river that those fish are likely to be inedible.

The land is owned by North American properties and they didn't make anyone available for comment on this story.

Leaders at this news conference encouraged communities to keep applying for funds from New Jersey's Brownfields Program, even while progress is going slow on current projects in Sayreville, I'm Ted Goldberg.

NJ Spotlight News.