Why Berry's Creek floods: tide gates, the Meadowlands and East Rutherford and Rutherford
Berry's Creek is the tidal creek that runs past MetLife Stadium and through East Rutherford and Rutherford to the Hackensack River. Most of the water in it arrives with the tide, and the tide gates built across its tributaries decide where that water can go.
Berry's Creek is a tidal estuary of the Hackensack River, not an ordinary stream. The Environmental Protection Agency describes it as about 4.5 miles long from the West Riser tide gate to the river, with portions in Teterboro, Moonachie, Wood-Ridge, Carlstadt, Rutherford and East Rutherford. About 10.4 square miles of developed upland drain into its tidal waterways and marshes. Flooding here comes from two directions: storm surge pushing up from the river, and heavy rain draining off the upland at a time when tide gates may be closed against high water. This guide sets out what the EPA, the Meadowlands agencies, the Army Corps of Engineers and the county hazard plan record, and where they are silent.
The short version
- The EPA describes Berry's Creek as a tidal estuary about 4.5 miles long, from the West Riser tide gate to the Hackensack River.
- About 10.4 square miles of developed upland drain into 1.6 square miles of tidal creek and marsh.
- Tide gates across the main tributaries keep the tide out, but water cannot drain through a gate while it is closed at high tide.
- During Sandy the measured surge reached 8.8 feet above mean sea level; Moonachie, Little Ferry and Carlstadt took four to five feet of water.
- The county plan puts 65.70 per cent of East Rutherford and 29.08 per cent of Rutherford inside the one per cent floodplain.
- The Rebuild by Design Meadowlands project covers Little Ferry, Moonachie, Carlstadt, Teterboro and South Hackensack, not East Rutherford or Rutherford.
A tidal creek, not a river
The Environmental Protection Agency, which has studied the creek for decades because of its mercury contamination, describes Berry's Creek as a tidal estuary in which most of the water typically comes in with the tide. Its 2018 investigation report records that tidal exchange with the Hackensack River happens twice daily. The EPA gives the length of the creek as approximately 4.5 miles, measured from the West Riser tide gate to the Hackensack River. Other published descriptions, including an earlier page on this site, give a longer figure; the EPA figure is used here because it is measured between two fixed points. The Army Corps of Engineers site record, compiled for the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, traces the course: the creek flows through East Rutherford into Rutherford, then along the boundary between Rutherford and Lyndhurst to the Hackensack River. The creek and Berry's Creek Canal meet just south of the Route 3 bridge. The canal flows unimpeded. The creek itself passes through two culverts, one under the Rutherford Landfill haul road and one under the New Jersey Transit Bergen Line, both of which the Corps describes as degraded. The EPA divides the system into segments using Route 3 as a boundary: Middle Berry's Creek runs south to Route 3, the canal runs from Route 3 to the river, and Lower Berry's Creek passes through culverts near Route 3.
A small marsh with a large developed catchment
The proportions explain a good deal. According to the EPA investigation report, the tidal waterways and marshes of the Berry's Creek study area cover about 1,029 acres, or 1.6 square miles. The upland that drains to them covers about 6,670 acres, or 10.4 square miles, and it is almost entirely built on: the six towns named above, the Meadowlands Sports Complex, Teterboro Airport, warehouses, rail lines and highways. In one tributary catchment, Upper Peach Island Creek, the EPA records that about 68 per cent of the land is impervious. The Corps site record notes that four retention basins collect runoff from the Sports Complex parking lots and discharge it into Berry's Creek, and that the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority prepared a flood management plan in 1980 covering an embankment and other facilities along the creek. Rain falling on that upland has to reach the tidal creek, and the tidal creek has to empty into the Hackensack. When the river is high, it cannot.
What the tide gates do
A tide gate is a flap or door across a channel that lets water out at low tide and closes when the tide rises, so that salt water and surge cannot push upstream. The EPA states that tide gates sit across the major tributaries of Berry's Creek and limit how far the tide reaches; it names the West Riser, East Riser and Peach Island Creek gates. Its investigation report gives the clearest account of how one of them behaves. The Peach Island Creek gate, near Gotham Parkway, ended the twice-daily tidal exchange between Upper Peach Island Creek and the rest of the system. The report gives two dates for its construction, 1967 to 1968 in one passage and 1968 to 1969 in another, and does not say which is correct. Behind the gate, water levels are muted by a backwater effect, and water cannot drain while the gate is closed at high tide. The report states that the gate helps limit flooding of the commercial areas beside the creek, and that the marsh behind it floods only during major rain or when sustained high tides keep the gate from passing water; a graphic in the same report puts that threshold at more than two inches of rain over a 24-hour period. If the gate fails or works poorly, brackish tidal conditions return until it is repaired. None of the sources opened for this guide gives a full count of the tide gates on Berry's Creek, says who operates each one, or records their condition. The Corps record notes that a 2000 survey identified 30 flood control structures along the Hackensack River and its tributaries, 13 of which were fitted with tide gauges.
Surge from the river
The second source of flooding is the Hackensack River itself. The EPA investigation report records that during Hurricane Sandy in 2012 the measured storm surge reached 8.8 feet above mean sea level, or 6.2 feet above normal mean high water, and exceeded the 100-year flood elevation. The Bergen County hazard plan records that during Sandy the worst damage occurred in Moonachie, Little Ferry and Carlstadt, which were inundated with four to five feet of water as the surge came up the Hackensack. Those three towns sit on the eastern side of the Berry's Creek catchment. The Meadowlands Research and Restoration Institute has published storm surge water elevation maps for East Rutherford and Rutherford, dated July 2023, showing the predicted extent and depth of flooding at surge levels from two to eight feet. The East Rutherford maps distinguish between flooding predicted with the tide gates working and flooding predicted in their absence, which is a direct illustration of how much the gates matter. The institute states that the maps are based on 2022 elevation data, are provided for information only, and do not replace FEMA flood maps.
Rain on top of tide
Rain is the other half of the problem. The EPA report records that Hurricane Irene in August 2011 brought 8.2 inches of rain over a 24-hour period to the area. The Bergen County hazard plan records that during the remnants of Ida on September 1 and 2, 2021, the weather station at Teterboro Airport, which sits within the Berry's Creek study area, measured 7.14 inches of rain. Neither source says what tide was running on those nights or how the gates performed, so this guide does not draw a conclusion about either storm. What the records do establish is the mechanism: rain runs off a heavily paved upland into a tidal creek that empties only when the Hackensack is low enough, through gates that close when it is not. A long period of high water, a surge, or a gate that is not working can all leave rainwater with nowhere to go.
What the county figures show town by town
The Bergen County 2026 hazard plan gives the share of each municipality's land inside the FEMA one per cent annual chance floodplain. For the towns along Berry's Creek: Carlstadt 77.28 per cent, Moonachie 77.17, East Rutherford 65.70, Teterboro 48.47, Rutherford 29.08 and Wood-Ridge 5.07. Lyndhurst, on the opposite bank of the lower creek, is 50.92 per cent. These are whole-town figures from every flood source, not only Berry's Creek. The plan's National Flood Insurance Program table, as of October 17, 2024, lists 62 active policies and 256 total losses in East Rutherford, 89 policies and 268 losses in Rutherford, and 9 policies and 79 losses in Carlstadt. The plan also counts properties that have flooded repeatedly: 34 repetitive loss and 13 severe repetitive loss properties in East Rutherford, and 37 and 17 in Rutherford. In both towns the number of recorded losses is several times the number of policies now in force. The plan does not explain that gap.
What is being built, and what is not
The largest flood project in the area is the Rebuild by Design Meadowlands Flood Protection Project, run by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. Its December 2018 record of decision covers Little Ferry, Moonachie, Carlstadt, Teterboro and South Hackensack. The selected plan includes two new pump stations, a new force main for the Losen Slote drainage area, dredging of the lower East Riser Ditch, 41 green infrastructure systems along roads, and three new parks. The East Riser is one of the tide-gated branches the EPA names in the Berry's Creek system. East Rutherford and Rutherford are not among the five municipalities listed. Separately, the EPA's 2018 decision for the creek's contaminated sediment calls for removing and capping sediment in Upper and Middle Berry's Creek, and the agency states that the clean-up is being coordinated with the Rebuild by Design team so that it does not work against flood mitigation. The EPA fact sheet does not give a construction schedule.
What this means if you live or work here
Three points follow from the record. First, on this creek the tide matters as much as the rain. A storm that arrives at high tide, or a surge that holds the Hackensack up for several cycles, can flood ground that a larger storm at low tide would not. Second, the tide gates are flood infrastructure, and the EPA notes that when one fails the tide returns behind it; a gate that is stuck open or blocked is worth reporting to the borough. Third, check the map and the policy before they are needed. Whether a particular address is in a mapped flood zone is a question for the FEMA Flood Map Service Center, not for a town-wide percentage, and the Meadowlands surge maps are a useful second look but are not official. Flood insurance is a separate policy from homeowners insurance, and FEMA states that a new flood policy normally takes effect 30 days after purchase. If water does come in, treat it as an electrical hazard until the power is confirmed off, never walk or drive into floodwater, and assume water that has come up from drains or a tidal creek may carry sewage.
Common questions
Why does Berry's Creek flood?
The records describe two sources. Storm surge on the Hackensack River pushes up the tidal creek, and heavy rain runs off about 10.4 square miles of developed land into a creek that can only empty when the river is low enough. Tide gates keep the tide out of the tributaries, but the EPA notes that water cannot drain through a gate while it is closed at high tide.
What is a tide gate?
A gate across a channel that opens to let water out at low tide and closes as the tide rises, so that tidal water and surge cannot travel upstream. On Berry's Creek the EPA names the West Riser, East Riser and Peach Island Creek gates. When a gate fails, the EPA records that tidal conditions return behind it until it is repaired.
How much of East Rutherford is in the flood zone?
The Bergen County 2026 hazard plan puts 65.70 per cent of East Rutherford and 29.08 per cent of Rutherford inside the FEMA one per cent annual chance floodplain. Those are town-wide figures. For a particular address, use the FEMA Flood Map Service Center.
Is a flood project planned for Berry's Creek?
The Rebuild by Design Meadowlands project, run by the state Department of Community Affairs, covers Little Ferry, Moonachie, Carlstadt, Teterboro and South Hackensack and includes dredging of the lower East Riser Ditch and two new pump stations. East Rutherford and Rutherford are not among the listed municipalities. The EPA sediment clean-up of the creek is a separate, contamination-led project.
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