Rahway River
[1] The upper reaches are lined with several parks while the mouth serves as an industrial access channel on the Chemical Coast.
The river's mouth is at the Arthur Kill between Carteret (on the south) and Linden (on the north), opposite Port Mobil on Staten Island.
Over 1,500 gulls, many species of shorebirds, breeding clapper rail, egrets, ducks, plovers, hawks, pheasants, wintering northern harrier and marsh wrens utilize the site.
[14] The RRWA Watershed Learning Center (known as the Blue House) is located on the river at Lower Essex Street Park in Rahway.
[17] Echo Lake, off Nomahegan Brook (a Rahway tributary) in Westfield and Orange Reservoir in South Mountain in Maplewood offer paddle boating.
Along with these good-sized trout, much bigger breeders are also stocked to excite those anglers skilled or lucky enough to catch one (5-pound trophies are caught by these fishermen each spring).
[24] Mark Modoski, angler and contributor for Field & Stream magazine, has written about fishing for catfish and carp on Nomahegan Lake off the river.
The fish targeted for upstream passage at the Rahway River Water Supply Dam are alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus), blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis), gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum), white perch (Morone Americana) and the endangered American eel (Anguilla rostrate).
The glowing firelit faces reflect in the water as families enjoy free hot chocolate, marshmallows, and entertainment around the campfire.
In March 1795, Sam Campbell built The Thistle Paper Mill[31] on land along the Rahway River in the town of Millville, later renamed Millburn.
[33] The American painter Hugh Bolton Jones (1848–1927) depicts the Rahway River in his 1880s work "Spring," part of the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
[35] The highly urbanized Rahway River watershed in New Jersey suffers from frequent flooding due to extensive development and destruction of riparian wetlands and floodplains.
As a result of Hurricane Irene, residents and business owners along the Rahway River have suffered extensive financial losses and personal hardship than in most severe prior storms.
In September 2016, the United States House of Representatives authorized the Rahway River Basin Flood Risk Management Feasibility Study under the Water Resources Development Act.
The study is now a full-go after Congressman Leonard Lance and the Mayors Council on Rahway River Watershed Flood Control pushed for years for its completion.
Local politicians, including Ann Dooley, have urged Senator Cory Booker to work on Rahway River flooding relief as well.
In order for a flood risk management alternative to be considered by the Federal Government, it must provide a positive benefit-to-cost ratio.
This economic analysis phase is important to not only determine the benefit-to-cost ratio of each alternative, but it is also critical for the justification and request for authorization from Congress to construct a project after the Feasibility Study is complete.
[44] Early in August 2016, Congressman Leonard Lance joined U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (NJ) and Colonel David A. Caldwell, Commander of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (New York District), for a site visit of a proposed flooding solution, known as Alternative 4A.
“The residents do a great job cleaning the parks,” Union County Watershed Ambassador Ismail Sukkar told LocalSource.
Recently, environmental groups have expressed concern over two projects on the lower tidal banks of the Rahway, roughly at Potters Island: According to recently resurfaced 19th century lore, pirate Captain William Kidd buried treasure on the banks of the Rahway River, alongside the body of one of his men he had just murdered.
The location was said to on the southern banks of the river at a spot called Price's or Post's Woods, said to be midway between Rahway and the Arthur Kill.
The National Academy of Design, as well as other metropolitan art exhibitions, have contained many charming landscapes by such men as Bruce Crane and Hugh Bolton Jones, the material for which was gathered in Union County."
