F.W. Berk and Company, a chemical processing firm in Wood-Ridge and Carlstadt, discharged untreated waste, including mercury, into the creek between 1929 and 1960. In 1960 Berk sold its property to Wood Ridge Chemical Corporation, a subsidiary of Velsicol Chemical Corporation, and the waste discharges continued. In the 1960s the New Jersey Department of Health conducted tests of the plant effluent, although the principal focus at that time was conventional pollutants, for which there were well-established analytical testing methods. (Some wastewater samples were analyzed for mercury, however the results were negative due to the insensitivity of the test method employed.) In 1968 the plant was sold to Ventron, which continued operations, although the company also began to study the environmental impacts of its discharges. In 1970 the newly-established U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also began tests of the plant wastewater, and found there were daily discharges of two to four pounds of mercury into Berry's Creek. Neither the state nor EPA filed formal charges against the plant at that time. Plant operations ended in 1974, when Ventron sold the property to Robert M. Wolf, a real estate developer.