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Trust Shattered as DEP Revises Sewer Plan to Promote Economic Development

[Update: 6/24/11: LTE: Sewer plan Threatens Watershed]

I wonder what NJ State Senator Kyrillos thinks of all this.

In a stunning move, a Monmouth County Freeholder is publicly criticizing DEP for dictating sewering of environmentally sensitive lands in Holmdel.

The DEP is acting unilaterally, despite the strong opposition of Holmdel and Monmouth County, reversing longstanding DEP policy and sewer plans.

It is unusual for DEP to unilaterally amend a local sewer plan for any reason, let alone to promote development. And rarer still for public officials to openly blow the whistle on the kind of dirty DEP corporate deal we have here.

In a superb letter to the editor “DEP Wrong on Sewers“, Monmouth County Freeholder Lillian Berry wrote:

The DEP, acting within its prerogatives, directed Monmouth County to change sewer service area mapping in Holmdel Township..

When a process where the greatest care has been taken to build consensus among the parties and protect the rights of all involved is effectually overturned at the 11^th hour, the trust of the public is shattered.

…. This is the kind of action that can color relationships with the DEP well into the future and make both individuals and agencies question whether they should see the DEP as a trustworthy partner.

This would be unfortunate; the DEP is a great resource. But once public trust is lost, it is very hard to regain.

The DEP Press Office arrogantly confirms that fact (Outcry Over DEP Plans to Extend Sewers in Holmdel):

A previous version of the WMP did not include extension of the sewer lines in place at the Lucent site. Sewer lines are currently only loated inside the footprint of the 2 million square foot vacant former Bell Labs building .

However, DEP revised a draft version of the plan to allow for the expansion of the sewer lines throughout the 472 acre Lucent property, a move that area officials say DEP has yet to justify. According to Larry Ragonese, DEP press director, the agency’s decision to add additional sewer access at the Lucent site was made to provide “development opportunities in places that might make some sense.”

This is what happens under the influence of a “common sense regulation” Governor and a totally inexperienced DEP Commissioner Bob Martin, whose warped vision is that DEP should promote economic development.

According to Freeholder Berry, here’s where the Martin DEP thinks development “makes sense“:

• There is a consistent concern for protecting drinking water supplies in Monmouth County. A very important element of this is protection of the Swimming River Reservoir, part of a system serving more than 340,000 people, and the watershed that supports it. The southern slope of Holmdel Township is part of that watershed. Holmdel is committed to limiting sewers there.
• More than 25 years ago, the Monmouth County Planning Board adopted, as part of its Guide Plan, a document that calls for this protection. The State Development and Redevelopment Plan uses locations within a water supply watershed as the basis for designating land as Planning Area 5  “Environmentally Sensitive”. This proposed wastewater plan identifies eight Monmouth County water purveyors as being in potential deficit for water supply and finds there is virtually no reserve in the confined aquifers from which their water allocations are drawn.
• Installing sewers not only facilitates the expansion of impervious cover, which increases storm water runoff, but also transfers wastewater out of the drainage basin and discharges it into the Raritan Bay and Atlantic Ocean. Both of these things reduce groundwater recharge essential to preserving base flow in streams that support the reservoir.
• The Monmouth County Planning Board Amendment Review Committee remains an effective mechanism for amending this plan that is available to all landowners that secure municipal approvals requiring expanded sewers.

All of these facts argue against the action directed by NJDEP.

And it is obvious that DEP is acting only to promote the special interests of corporate giant Lucent, not the environment or the public interest:

While the majority of attendees at the hearing opposed the changes, William Parkinson, a real estate manager with Alcatel Lucent, said the company approves of the alterations.

“We strongly support [this] mapping,” he said. “Any other result would be unjust, unlawful and bad regional planning policy”.

But Holmdel Township Engineer Ed Broberg said the plan to add sewer lines to the Lucent property would alter the balance the municipality has created between development and open space, as well as disturb an environmentally sensitive area.

“We need to preserve that balance,” Broberg said at the meeting.

“We need to protect those environmentally sensitive areas not only because of the Lucent tract, but because of the impact that they have on the surrounding parts of the community and the reservoir.

“Then we have the arts center tract, which is also a part of the balance that has been achieved in Holmdel. There is a great deal of open space, there are steep slopes, there are headwaters to various streams in town, and we are concerned about the development of that parcel,” he said

Christie and Bob Martin have Common Sense?

I wonder what NJ State Senator Kyrillos thinks of all that.