Chemical Coast

The Chemical Coast is a section of Union and Middlesex counties in New Jersey located along the shores of the Arthur Kill, across from Staten Island, New York.

The name is taken from the Conrail Chemical Coast Line, an important component in the ExpressRail system serving marine terminals in the Port of New York and New Jersey.

In 1907, John D. Rockefeller, the founder of the Standard Oil company, acquired several hundred acres of the former Morse family estate between Linden and Elizabeth for what would become the Bayway Refinery.

[8] Emissions from the area's chemical plants have been blamed for some serious health problems that have been observed among residents of neighborhoods on Staten Island situated directly across the Arthur Kill, specifically an elevated rate of cancer found to exist among long-time denizens of Travis.

The railroad bridge over the Arthur Kill waterway has also been restored, and at least one freight train has made the crossing in 2006 from New Jersey to Staten Island.

Plans are to reactivate the North Shore of the Staten Island Railway to allow freight shipments to and from the recently revamped Howland Hook Marine Terminal.

Some of these latter proposals would run passenger trains to Cranford Junction, while others call for a western terminus at either the former Arlington or Port Ivory stations on Staten Island.

Tank cars parked on a spur of the Chemical Coast Line that passes under the Staten Island Railway in Elizabeth in November 2006 with a container ship being unloaded at Howland Hook on the right
Salt marshes seen from the New Jersey Turnpike in Elizabeth . In the distance is the Goethals Bridge , and behind that the Arthur Kill Bridge , both going to Staten Island
Petrochemical storage tanks in Carteret as seen from Staten Island and over the Arthur Kill