What's Going On With Briant Pond In Summit? County Provides Update

SUMMIT, NJ — Many Summit residents have been complaining in recent months about the current mess that is Briant Pond.

The pond, which is located at Briant Park off of Springfield Avenue, is filled with a lot of debris and vegetation and Summit council members have been pushing the County to take action on addressing the eye sore in town.

"It has to be fixed," Councilwoman Delia Hamlet said in a recent Facebook Live. "It looks terrible, and let's hold the county accountable."

Ricardo Matias, the Union County Engineer, provided Patch some updates on the Briant Pond cleaning process.

Matias said the County has contracted with Clean-Flo to biologically remediate and treat the pond. Prior to this work commencing, the County also entered into contract with Colliers Engineering to prepare bid specifications to Hydro-rake the pond.

Hydro-raking means raking the pond, or pulling out growing vegetation to enhance and speed up the biological breakdown of organic material.

Councilwoman Jaime Levine also said in the Facebook Live that the Hydro-raking will help remove all the "muck and guck" out of the bottom of the pond. As part of this, she said an aeration system will be placed within the pond to bring oxygen down below the surface and create clean water.

Matias said the County is currently awaiting a memorandum from Colliers outlining the environmental considerations and scheduling of the project.

He said he expects work on the project to occur in 2023. But Hamlet said it's likely not going to begin in the winter.

"It's insane how we've let it get this bad," Hamlet said.

Briant Park is one of 36 Union County parks that encompass 6,200 acres. This park located in Summit and includes a fitness trail, a multi-use path, fishing and ice skating.

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