Residents of Essex and Passaic Counties in New Jersey who have lived alongside contaminated land for decades are getting a chance to work on cleaning it up. Montclair State University has received a $500,000 federal grant to train 100 unemployed and underemployed people from the region for careers in environmental remediation, turning a workforce problem and a pollution problem into a single solution.

The two counties sit at the heart of New Jersey's industrial legacy. Newark, Paterson, Passaic, and their surrounding cities were once home to chemical plants, textile mills, and tanneries whose closures left behind both joblessness and contaminated soil. New Jersey has more than 20,000 known contaminated sites statewide, and Essex and Passaic Counties hold a disproportionate share. The Passaic River corridor, which runs through both counties, includes one of the most expensive Superfund cleanup sites in American history.

Unemployment in the region runs well above state and national averages. Paterson's rate has historically hovered between 8 and 10 percent; Newark's between 7 and 9 percent, compared to New Jersey's roughly 4 to 5 percent overall.

The grant, funded through the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will pay for participants to earn a suite of certifications that open doors into the remediation industry: a 40-hour hazardous waste operations course, OSHA safety credentials, and training in asbestos and lead abatement, GIS mapping, blueprint reading, and environmental site assessments. Montclair State has tailored the curriculum specifically to New Jersey's regulatory environment, which requires specialized knowledge under the state's 2009 Site Remediation Reform Act, giving graduates a competitive edge in the local job market.

Beyond the technical training, the program includes professional development: resume writing, interview preparation, and skills like conflict resolution and emotional intelligence. The university, which sits in Montclair in Essex County and serves a largely diverse, first-generation student population, has run similar EPA-funded training programs before.

EPA's Brownfields Job Training program nationally reports job placement rates above 70 percent for graduates. Whether this cohort meets that benchmark, and how the university tracks placements over time, will determine how much of the $500,000 translates into lasting economic change for communities that have been waiting a long time for both.