Hudson County
Mold and Water Damage in Kearny, Where the Flood Map Misses Most of It
Describe the water and you will get the findings in writing from someone who is not selling you the removal, which is the only way to know what the scope should leave out. Kearny is the town where that matters most: its hazard mitigation annex records 277 flood insurance claims and about 30.5 million dollars in loss payments against just 70 flood insurance policies in force today.
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Tell us the street or the neighborhood, what you can see or smell, and whether the water came up through the floor or in through a wall. In this city those two answers point at different trades, different costs and often a different person who should be paying.
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Kearny's 30.5 million dollar flood record, read as evidence
Kearny's hazard mitigation annex records 277 flood insurance claims and about 30.5 million dollars in loss payments, against just 70 flood insurance policies in force and 12 repetitive loss properties.
Source: Hudson County Office of Emergency Management, 2025 Hudson County Hazard Mitigation Plan, accessed 2026-09-21
178 of Kearny's 285 flood insurance claims, about 62 percent, were on policies rated in zones C, X or B, all of which sit outside the mapped special flood hazard area. 153 of the 285 were coded rainfall or snowmelt against 86 tidal.
Source: Federal Emergency Management Agency, OpenFEMA FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims dataset v2, accessed 2026-09-21
USGS elevation queries in Kearny return 105.5 feet at Kearny Avenue near Midland Avenue on the upland, 0.7 feet at Schuyler Avenue on the Meadowlands side and 8.8 feet in South Kearny.
Source: US Geological Survey, 3D Elevation Program point query service, accessed 2026-09-21
Kearny has two sewer operators. The Town of Kearny holds the permits for five active combined sewer outfalls, three discharging to the Passaic River and two to an unnamed tributary known as Frank's Creek, and its Department of Public Works maintains about 90 miles of sewers. The Kearny Municipal Utilities Authority, created in 1988, separately collects storm and waste water from parts of the Meadowlands and South Kearny through one 17.5 million gallon a day pumping station and three smaller ones, pumping to the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission in Newark.
Source: Hudson County Office of Emergency Management, 2025 Hudson County Hazard Mitigation Plan, accessed 2026-09-21
Kearny's annex names the area around Dukes Street and the Dead Horse Creek watershed drainage area as flood prone. A stormwater pump station at Dukes Street funded by the NJ Infrastructure Bank at an estimated 12 to 14 million dollars is about 70 percent built and construction is temporarily halted because of a geotechnical settlement issue at the pumping station, with a further six to eight months needed once it is resolved. The annex also records that the tide gates along the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers are old and in need of replacement and that the town has no way of knowing when a pump station fails.
Source: Hudson County Office of Emergency Management, 2025 Hudson County Hazard Mitigation Plan, accessed 2026-09-21
Kearny's median housing unit was built in 1951, the oldest of the towns covered here. Of 15,367 units, 38.2 percent date from 1939 or earlier, 79.5 percent from before 1980 and only 8.7 percent from 2000 or later. 42.9 percent are owner occupied, the second highest share in the group, and 4,070 units sit in two unit buildings.
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 five year estimates, accessed 2026-09-21
The federal Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule requires anyone paid to perform work that disturbs painted surfaces in housing built before 1978 to hold EPA firm certification, and states that firms cannot advertise or perform renovation activities covered by the rule in pre-1978 homes without that certification. It applies to all firms, including sole proprietorships.
Source: United States Environmental Protection Agency, accessed 2026-09-21
EPA administers the Renovation, Repair and Painting program directly in most states, tribes and territories, and publishes the list of fifteen jurisdictions authorized to run their own programs instead. New Jersey is not on that list.
Source: United States Environmental Protection Agency, accessed 2026-09-21
Mold Guidelines for New Jersey Residents tells homeowners: Consider using a different company to perform testing as well as remediation. Using the same company may present a conflict of interest and should be avoided.
Source: New Jersey Department of Health, accessed 2026-09-21
October 1, 2020 was the submission deadline for all New Jersey combined sewer overflow Long Term Control Plans. The public information site run jointly by the Jersey City MUA and the other Passaic Valley and North Bergen permittees states that the current Long Term Control Plan is under review by NJDEP and, to date, has not been accepted.
Source: Clean Waterways, Healthy Neighborhoods, the joint public information program of the PVSC and NBMUA combined sewer permittees including the Jersey City MUA, accessed 2026-09-21
Before you accept a scope in Kearny
Send the address and what the water did. The findings come to you in writing from someone with no stake in the removal, which is what the state's own guidance for residents tells you to arrange.
Two sewer operators in one town, and how to tell which is yours
The first practical question in Kearny is which body owns the pipe outside your house, because there are two of them. The Town of Kearny holds the permits for five active combined sewer outfalls, three discharging to the Passaic and two to Frank's Creek, and its Department of Public Works looks after about 90 miles of sewer. The Kearny Municipal Utilities Authority, created in 1988, separately collects storm and waste water from parts of the Meadowlands and South Kearny through one 17.5 million gallon a day pumping station and three smaller ones, and pumps it to the Passaic Valley plant in Newark. Calling the wrong one costs days, and days are what turn a wet floor into a removal job. Do not wait on the infrastructure either. The Dukes Street stormwater pump station is about 70 percent built and construction is temporarily halted over a geotechnical settlement issue at the station, with a further six to eight months needed once that is resolved, and the same annex records the Passaic and Hackensack tide gates as old and in need of replacement and notes the town has no way of knowing when a pump station fails. The buildings are the oldest in this area: a median year built of 1951, 38.2 percent of units from 1939 or earlier and only 8.7 percent from 2000 or later, so a wall that comes open here usually has something behind it nobody costed. That age carries a federal rule with it. Any paid work disturbing painted surfaces in a home built before 1978 needs EPA firm certification, and EPA runs that program directly in New Jersey rather than delegating it to the state.
Areas within Kearny: Uptown Kearny, Kearny Avenue, Schuyler Avenue, The Dukes Street area, South Kearny, The Meadowlands side
Uptown, Schuyler Avenue and South Kearny: what is available
Mold Inspection and Testing
Find out what is actually growing, what water is feeding it and how far it runs, in a written report from a company that is not quoting for the removal.
Mold Inspection in Kearny →Mold Remediation and Removal
Get the mold and the material holding it out of the building, with the water route closed first and the scope set by where the water came from rather than by the size of the stain.
Mold Removal in Kearny →Water Damage Drying
Get the water out and the structure dry fast enough that mold never starts, and find out on day one whether what came in can lawfully be dried in place at all.
Water Damage Drying in Kearny →Uptown or Meadowlands side? Tell us which
Two halves of one town with nothing in common but the tax bill. Say where you are and we will arrange the trade that fits it. Phones answered 24/7.