Wetlands Patch Challenges Xanadu Development Plan in New Jersey.

Byline: Colleen Diskin

Apr. 24--On the edge of the Continental Arena parking lot is a five-acre island of mud and tall reeds.

It is hidden behind a crusty chain-link fence, isolated on all sides by concrete, and sprinkled with litter from those walking to or from games and concerts. It's also contaminated with heavy metals. And the creek that feeds it is splintered into segments by intersecting roads.

But this small slice of marshland in East Rutherford is a protected wetland. And it has become the new swamp of contention in some environmentalists' efforts to shrink the footprint of the proposed $1.3 billion retail and entertainment complex known as Xanadu.

"It's a little oasis," said environmentalist Jeff Tittel, pointing out that fish breed and birds feed in the tiny marsh, which fills with water from the Hackensack River during high tide.

Why this island of nature was allowed to survive at all is unclear to many of today's political leaders. But 25 years after construction of the arena, it still affords visitors a senses-jarring mix of sights and sounds.

On a recent sunny morning, when all was quiet at the sports complex, a red-winged blackbird perched on an 8-foot-tall phragmites reed, only a few hundred yards from a towering ad for Pepsi. Its melodic calls rose a note or two above the whirring hum of the New Jersey Turnpike. Not far away, muddy creek water lapped lazily into a culvert as the tires of a cement mixer ground in the muck of a neighboring work site.