Nearly 25 years after bald eagles halted development plans, cleanup delays and new ownership threaten the future of a nature preserve.
New Jersey’s conservation community was stunned when a pair of nesting bald eagles showed up on Petty’s Island, a deeply contaminated spit of land in the Delaware River between Pennsauken, Camden, and Philadelphia.
The 350-acre island, owned for a century by CITGO and its corporate predecessors, had hosted an oil refinery, an underground fuel tank farm, and a shipping container operation. Spilled petroleum products pooled on the ground or percolated just below the surface, amid tar pits and sludge lagoons.
Despite the toxic mess, deep-pocket developers were eyeing a vacant and wooded stretch along Petty’s Island’s southern shore, where they proposed a $1 billion development of luxury homes and golf courses that would overlook the Philadelphia skyline…