Increasing settlements in the early 19th century were accompanied by human alterations to the land in the Hackensack meadowlands, such as clearing forests; building roads, railroads and ditches; and filling wetlands.

[1] The Second Industrial Revolution led to construction of heavy manufacturing, storage tanks, and chemical processing plants in the area during the late 19th & early 20th centuries.

)[3]: 4 Urbanization in the region intensified after World War II, with the expansion of roads and highways, including the New Jersey Turnpike (1952), as well as the Meadowlands Sports Complex (1970s).

Within the watershed are many commercial and light industrial sites, portions of the sports complex, several closed landfills, and many roads and highways.

[3]: 2 Walden Marsh was built in the 1980s adjacent to the sports complex, as part of environmental mitigation for flood prevention measures that were installed.

Berk and Company, a chemical processing firm in Wood-Ridge and Carlstadt, discharged untreated waste, including mercury, into the creek between 1929 and 1960.

In 1970 the newly-established U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also began tests of the plant wastewater, and found there were daily discharges of two to four pounds of mercury into Berry's Creek.

of Health) filed a lawsuit against Ventron and other parties for violating the recently-enacted New Jersey Water Quality Improvement Act of 1971.

[11] Wolf had demolished the former Ventron plant in 1974, but the residual pollution remained in the creek, rendering the site still unsustainable.

In October 2018 EPA announced a 5.5-year plan to remove and/or cap the toxic waste in the creek and watershed resulting from the Ventron/Velsicol site discharges.

"[2]: 4–28 Significant fish species in the Meadowlands region are mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus), white perch (Morone americana), Atlantic silverside (Menidia menidia), gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum), striped killifish (Fundulus majalis), and striped bass (Morone saxatilis).

[2]: 4–29  In November 1991 a water sample survey found high levels of the metallic element chromium in the hepatopancreas of the local blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) population.

[20] NJDEP has issued advisories warning against harvesting or eating blue crabs from Berry's Creek, the entire Hackensack River watershed and Newark Bay.