New Jersey multi-water assessment unit · state assessment record
Hackensack R (below Amtrak bridge)
Assessment decisions reported by New Jersey to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), last assessed in the 2022 reporting cycle. 2 of the 3 cleanup plans below were established by EPA rather than by New Jersey.
- 9.27
- Acres of lake water
- Lake
- Water type
This waterbody in one line
Hackensack R (below Amtrak bridge), a multi-water assessment unit in New Jersey, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with 11 listed impairment causes in the state's most recent Integrated Report cycle (2022). By assessed acreage it sits among the smaller assessed lakes nationally (38,628 lakes with a filed area); its impairment list is among the longest nationally (11 listed causes vs 23,610 assessed lakes). Aquatic life is assessed as not supporting. Fish consumption is assessed as not supporting.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P18
- Assessed size nationally
- P0
- Shorter cause list
- Not Supporting
- aquatic life
The state agency files this as one assessment unit spanning 9.27 acres of lake water and 18.64 miles of stream and river. The verdicts and listed causes below are reported for the whole unit, not for the lake water alone. Assessment verdicts are the state agency's decisions as reported to EPA ATTAINS; PlainLakes renders them without modification.
A composite of this record's EPA ATTAINS designated-use verdicts, filed impairment count, and assessment currency, weighted and benchmarked against the national corpus of assessed active waterbodies. This is a water-quality standing, not a human-recreation or property-value judgment, and dimensions with no filed verdict drop out rather than count against the score.
How Hackensack R (below Amtrak bridge) reads against the filed register
Paragraphs are selected by this unit's percentiles and use matrix: different lakes lead with different dimensions. Figures are ATTAINS / portal register arithmetic, not advice.
The signature stat: cause-list length
The standout filed fact is cause-list length: 11 listed impairment causes, a longer list than 100% of assessed lake-type units (n=23,610). List length tracks how states sample and code, not a severity score.
A split ruling across uses
This record splits: Not Supporting on fish consumption, aquatic life, Fully Supporting on recreation. The divergence is inside the designated-use matrix, not a single all-or-nothing label.
Hackensack R (below Amtrak bridge): Category 5, TMDL still owed
Category 5 is the Integrated Report band where a TMDL (or equivalent) is still expected for Hackensack R (below Amtrak bridge). Read the listed causes and any cleanup actions filed beside them before treating the overall status tile as a finished restoration story.
Small assessed unit
9.3 acres puts Hackensack R (below Amtrak bridge) in the lower tercile by assessed area. Small units are often beaches, ponds, or segments, read the water-type and co-filed notes before comparing them to a multi-thousand-acre reservoir.
Overall status: not supporting
The filer's overall status for Hackensack R (below Amtrak bridge) is Not Supporting. That tile summarizes the assessment unit; the designated-use rows and cause list are the evidence behind it.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ATTAINS program, New Jersey carries 611 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Hackensack R (below Amtrak bridge) without modification. See our methodology for reporting-unit limits and gauge linking rules.
The record
Designated-use assessments
Fully Supporting and Not Supporting are the state's definitive verdicts; other entries mean the use was not conclusively assessed in this cycle.
| Designated use | Group | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Aquatic Life | Aquatic-life or related | Not Supporting |
| Fish Consumption | Fish-consumption or fishery | Not Supporting |
| Secondary Contact Recreation | Recreation | Fully Supporting |
| Aquatic Life - Trout | Aquatic-life or related | Not Assessed |
| Primary Contact Recreation | Recreation | Not Assessed |
| Public Water Supply | Drinking-water supply designation | Not Assessed |
| Shellfish Harvesting | Fish-consumption or fishery | Not Assessed |
The record
Listed impairment causes
Causes the state listed as impairing designated uses of this multi-water assessment unit, with the cycle each was first listed and the Clean Water Act action recorded against it.
| Cause | Affected uses | First listed | Cleanup standing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chlordane in Fish Tissue | Fish Consumption | 2006 | TMDL priority: Low |
| Dioxin in Fish Tissue | Fish Consumption | 2006 | TMDL priority: Low |
| Dissolved Oxygen | Aquatic Life | 2006 | TMDL priority: Medium |
| PCBs in Fish Tissue | Fish Consumption | 2006 | TMDL priority: Low |
| Phosphorus, Total | Aquatic Life | 2006 | TMDL approved |
| Benzo[a]pyrene in Fish Tissue | Fish Consumption | 2008 | TMDL priority: Low |
| DDT in Fish Tissue | Fish Consumption | 2008 | TMDL priority: Low |
| Dieldrin in Fish Tissue | Fish Consumption | 2008 | TMDL priority: Low |
| Nickel | Fish Consumption, Aquatic Life | 2014 | TMDL established by EPA |
| Mercury in Fish Tissue | Fish Consumption | 2016 | TMDL established by EPA |
| Heptachlor in Fish Tissue | Fish Consumption | 2022 | TMDL priority: Low |
Reading the record
What this co-filed unit covers
18.64 miles of stream and river co-filed on this unit
The state agency files this as one assessment unit spanning 9.27 acres of lake water and 18.64 miles of stream and river. The verdicts and listed causes below are reported for the whole unit, not for the lake water alone.
This page is about the lake water in the unit; counts and verdicts below cover the whole multi-water assessment unit. How multi-water units are filed.
Scale and rank
Hackensack R (below Amtrak bridge) is one of 611 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from New Jersey, and one of 588 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 9.27 assessed acres it ranks 31,747th by assessed size among the 38,628 lakes the dataset carries an area for, counting a state’s repeated filings of one water once, behind 31,746 lakes with a larger one.
In context
Where Hackensack R (below Amtrak bridge) sits nationally
Assessed size among U.S. lakes
Distribution of assessed acreage across ATTAINS lakes filed with an area, counting a state’s repeated filings of one water once
9 Top 82% larger than 18% of 38,628 lakes
lakes the dataset carries an area for, counting a state’s repeated filings of one water once, bucketed by value
Source EPA ATTAINS · Reporting cycles 1987–2026
Listed causes vs waterbodies carrying a verdict
How many impairment causes U.S. waterbodies with a reported verdict carry
11 Longer than most more listed causes than 99%+ of 23,610 waterbodies carrying a verdict
named waterbodies carrying a verdict, bucketed by value
Source EPA ATTAINS · Reporting cycles 1987–2026
In both charts each bar is a band and taller bars hold more waterbodies; the dashed line and filled bar mark Hackensack R (below Amtrak bridge). Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
New Jersey context
ATTAINS carries 611 lake-type waterbodies in New Jersey, 583 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 21 fully supporting. Among the 588 indexed units there, Hackensack R (below Amtrak bridge) ranks 7th by listed-cause count (11 listed causes) and 398th by assessed size among the 588 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (583 statewide) . Its listed causes include Phosphorus, Total; and Mercury in Fish Tissue, which also appear among New Jersey's most-filed impairment causes (led by Arsenic). It also lists Chlordane in Fish Tissue, Dioxin in Fish Tissue, Dissolved Oxygen, PCBs in Fish Tissue, Benzo[a]pyrene in Fish Tissue, DDT in Fish Tissue, Dieldrin in Fish Tissue, Nickel, and Heptachlor in Fish Tissue, outside that top-five list.
| Other large assessed lakes in New Jersey | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| Wanaque Reservior (below Monks gage) Not Supporting | 2,599 |
| Lake Hopatcong Not Supporting | 2,583 |
| Prescott Brook / Round Valley Reservior Not Supporting | 2,297 |
| Merrill Creek Not Supporting | 1,298 |
| Wallkill R / Lake Mohawk(above Sparta Sta) Not Supporting | 975 |
| Wanaque R/Greenwood Lk(aboveMonks gage) Not Supporting | 881 |
Peers near Hackensack R (below Amtrak bridge)'s size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (9.27 acres here).
- Hanson Brook · 9.27 acres · NH
- LaCerte Lake · 9.27 acres · WI
- Seas Branch Pond · 9.27 acres · WI
- Smear Lake · 9.27 acres · WI
Similar cause load
Nearest listed-cause counts (11 here). Peers already in the acreage column are omitted.
- Lake Union · 11 causes · WA
- Salton Sea · 11 causes · CA
- Lake Union / Lake Washington Ship Canal · 12 causes · WA
- Brownlee Reservoir · 10 causes · OR
What to do with this record
- The fish-consumption use is assessed as not supporting. Before eating fish from this multi-water assessment unit, check your state fish-advisory program for species-specific meal limits. Consumption status guide
- Impairment listings follow the Clean Water Act 303(d) process; a listing is a regulatory finding, not a closure notice. 303(d) explained
PlainLakes renders state assessment decisions and federal gauge observations without modification. It does not issue advisories.
Assessment decisions on this page are rendered directly from state Integrated Report records in EPA's ATTAINS system; gauge figures are daily-value observations from the USGS National Water Information System, no number is typed in by an editor. Overall status, use verdicts, and causes are the state's reported decisions for assessment unit NJ02030103180100-01. Counts and percentiles are computed across all lake-type records PlainLakes ingests from ATTAINS. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-08-17. Primary sources: EPA ATTAINS and USGS National Water Information System.