GARDEN STATE ENVIRONEWS 000817B
Phil Reynolds
GARDEN STATE ENVIRONEWS
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
TABLE OF CONTENTS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Section B - Part 2 of 2 **
000817A
<*> BERGEN, MIDDLESEX MOSQUITO SPRAYING
<*> DEVELOPERS FIGHTING WATER PROTECTION PLAN
<*> HIGHLANDS TOWNS GETTING HIGH-TECH HELP WITH CONSERVATION
<*> EPA RELEASES AIR TOXIC CONCENTRATION DATA
000817B
<*> NEW GROUP JOINS MEDFORD'S QUEST FOR WATER
<*> WORK PROCEEDS ON PLAN TO COVER SOUTHERN LANDFILL
<*> EPA INQUIRY MEANS $195,000 PENALTY FOR AT&T
<*> NAVY AGAIN PUSHES BAY NOISE EXPERIMENT
<*> THE TORNE MOUNTAIN CONCERT - AUG 20
<*> CHANGE IN BEACH CLEANUP DATE - OCT 28
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
NEW GROUP JOINS MEDFORD'S QUEST FOR WATER
Date: 000817
From: http://www.phillyburbs.com/burlingtoncountytimes/
By Steve Doland, BCT staff writer
Medford - Residents and township officials here are hoping a newly
organized water conservation committee will save their wallets and
water.
There is no immediate crisis, but if the township doesn't conserve
water or find another permanent source, officials say the only option
would be to buy from New Jersey-American Water Company headquartered
in Haddon Heights, a move that would cost several million dollars just
to install a pipeline.
The township has been under pressure from the state Department of
Environmental Protection to come up with an additional, permanent
water source or cut back on water use before development or increased
consumption creates a shortage.
Earlier this year, Mayor Scott Rudder formed a water task force
manned by township professionals and residents. The task force came up
with a scaled-down irrigation schedule of six hours a day and a new
water-rate structure.
However, some residents and Township Councilwoman Martha Issod asked
for more public meetings and input from a broader sample of citizens.
Thus, at the Aug. 2 council meeting, Township Manager Al Feit
announced that a new, seven-member ad hoc committee had been formed to
educate residents about water conservation.
The committee will meet prior to Medford Open Space Advisory
Committee meetings. The first will be later this month.
The six-member committee includes environmentalists such as Carleton
Montgomery, executive director of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance
and Janet Jackson-Gould of the Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge in
Medford. A landscape architect, Cecilia Schmidt, and other residents
fill the other four slots.
Members said the committee would work to protect the environment and
residents' money.
"I think that's the bottom line with any program and it certainly
gets people's attention when you talk about money," Schmidt said.
Medford currently has a contract to use 65 million gallons of water a
year allocated to Clayton Borough. That contract expires at the end of
this year. DEP officials have said the township has to show some
progress to have any hope of renewing the contract. Medford pumps the
water, which Clayton currently doesn't need, from the same aquifer the
town gets the rest of its water.
While Medford never has exceeded its allotment of water from the
aquifer, Feit said the DEP is pushing the town to conserve and look
for other sources because the town could come up short of water in a
few years.
"The whole thing is that we're not really guaranteed water anywhere
and I don't know if it's in anyone's budget to spend all that money on
water," Schmidt said.
She said conservation education and effort by residents is key to
preserving the township's water source.
Jackson-Gould said Medford is draining too much of its water supply
but that residents could play a key role in preventing skyrocketing
water rates.
"Voluntary compliance is what's going to make this thing successful,"
she said.
The committee must sell residents on conservation benefits but,
ultimately, citizens could save their own environment and pocket
books, Montgomery said.
"I think there is a lot of room to conserve water and get benefits
financially and for the environment," he said, "but to win people
over, we have to do a good job of explaining those benefits and how to
do it."
Rob Schmitt, a DEP spokesman, said the township shows determination
to prevent future water shortage woes.
"The future of their water issues and how they're resolved is in
their hands," he said. "When you forge that kind of agreement with a
community, you expect to see some progress and the department has
every confidence that they'll succeed."
* * *
(C) 2000 Calkins Newspapers, Inc.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
WORK PROCEEDS ON PLAN TO COVER SOUTHERN LANDFILL
Date: 000817
From: http://www.injersey.com/app/ocean/
By Kirk Moore and Bill McLaughlin, Staff Writers
Asbury Park Press, 8/17/00
Waretown -- Work is under way at the Southern Ocean Landfill to cover
part of the defunct dump with crushed glass and construction debris,
in a controversial project aimed at sealing off old trash pits and the
long-term pollution hazard they pose to Pinelands ground water.
The landfill site recently started taking in truckloads of kaofin, a
clay-and-cellulose byproduct of paper recycling, and crushed recycled
glass, said A. Robert Morano, president of United Environmental
Services of Deptford, the project's primary contractor. A third waste
stream, crushed and screened construction demolition debris, is
scheduled to start showing up today.
"It's been sporadic up to now," Morano said of the deliveries.
In the coming weeks, deliveries will escalate past 50 trucks a day up
to the maximum of 100 trucks a day, coming in from the west side of
the township via routes 72 and 532, Morano said.
The deliveries have already been the subject of a complaint to the
township, after trucks traveled through residential eastern Waretown
instead of taking the approved route.
John Pawlowski, Atco Court, has told township officials he witnessed
dump trucks traveling along Route 9 to reach the landfill. Under terms
of a work plan, trucks hired by UES are supposed to approach the site
from the west, avoiding Waretown proper, where schools, a preschool
and homes line the eastern end of Route 532.
No other residents have complained, and Pawlowski, a Democratic
candidate for Ocean Township Committee last year who is expected to
run again this year, couldn't say for certain what trucking company
was involved.
Morano confirmed Pawlowski's complaint about the errant trucks, and
said the truck driver who led them on that route was warned not to do
it again.
"I checked it out and sure enough one of the drivers used the wrong
route. He was strongly admonished not to do it again," Morano said.
The complaint took a couple of days to get to UES and "it will be a
lot better if we hear about these incidents as soon as they happen,"
Morano added. "It will happen. Truckers are always looking for the
path of least resistance ... and if people see them off the approved
route, they should call us."
Township Committeeman Daniel Van Pelt said the police were notified
of Pawlowski's complaint and would be looking for truck drivers who
divert from the approved route.
The UES plan is to accept the glass, kaofin and construction waste
for charges of a few dollars per ton far less than if the waste
generators had to send it to an operating landfill.
Some of that money will pay UES to layer the material over part of
the landfill that operated during the 1980s, ultimately sealing it off
from rainwater that now percolates through buried trash and generates
leachate, polluted water that must be removed from a collection pond
each day.
Skeptics have questioned whether UES will get enough money to make
the plan work. But Morano said "we're getting prices at least what we
expected." He wouldn't reveal the prices per ton, citing customers'
confidentiality and competitive pressures in the recycling
marketplace.
The project now employs a manager, two equipment operators and two
laborers who operate the weighing house for trucks. An additional
weigh house worker will be hired when the number of trucks increase,
Morano said.
The project will take about 10 months to complete, Morano said,
adding that "a lot will depend on the weather over this winter."
Owned by Joseph Caldeira Sr. of Toms River, the Southern Ocean
Landfill operated from the early 1970s to 1988, when state regulators
declared it was filled to capacity and ordered it closed, over
Caldeira's protests.
Caldeira argued he had not collected enough money to properly cover
and close the dump and sought for some years to reopen the facility.
Meanwhile, what money was kept in a landfill closure escrow fund was
used to drain and dispose of leachate from the lined portion of the
landfill.
Ocean County officials last year threw their support behind the UES
proposal, as a way to close off the lined section and stop the
production of leachate from the buried trash.
The county has paid for leachate collection since Caldeira's escrow
fund was emptied last spring, and the county is also committed to a
new environmental assessment of the entire land-fill tract included
the unlined portion, where septic and industrial liquid waste was
dumped in the 1970s and early '80s.
* * *
Copyright 1997-2000 IN Jersey
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
EPA INQUIRY MEANS $195,000 PENALTY FOR AT&T
Date: 17 Aug 2000
From: Delly...@epamail.epa.gov
[Excerpt: Full text at http://www.gsenet.org/newsstnd/usepa.htm]
EPA REGION 2 NEWS BRIEFS
A Roundup of Recent News Items in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico,
and the U.S. Virgin Islands
August 17, 2000
INCOMPLETE RESPONSE TO EPA INQUIRY MEANS $195,000 PENALTY FOR AT&T
Morristown, NJ - AT&T has settled with the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) on charges it did not properly respond to an
agency request for information about its computer disposal practices,
and will now pay a penalty of $195,000.
EPA inspected the AT&T facility at 412 Mount Kemble Avenue in
Morristown, New Jersey in November 1998 in response to a tip that
possible hazardous waste, including computers and other equipment, was
being mismanaged. After the inspection, EPA sent a letter to AT&T
asking how the facility managed its waste computers and electrical
equipment. In two separate responses, AT&T provided some information
to EPA, but the agency believes the company did not fully answer
inquiries into how it managed waste computers and electrical equipment
a violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA),
which gives EPA the authority to request specific information from
facilities about their management of hazardous waste. Some computers
contain small amounts of toxic compounds including lead, mercury,
cadmium and arsenic.
Although individual computers from households may be placed in solid
waste landfills, EPA requires commercial establishments disposing of
computers to determine whether they qualify as hazardous waste, and if
so, to have the computers sent to an approved hazardous waste disposal
facility or to a recycler. AT&T ultimately submitted the missing
information to EPA, and no charges have been filed against the company
for improper disposal of computer parts.
For more information, contact Nina Habib Spencer, (212) 637-3670.
* * *
Mary Mears, (212) 637-3669.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency -- Region 2
New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
290 Broadway - New York, New York 10007-1866
www.epa.gov/region2
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
NAVY AGAIN PUSHES BAY NOISE EXPERIMENT
Date: 000817
From: http://www.pressplus.com/
By Jack Kaskey, Staff Writer, Press of Atlantic City, 609-272-7213
Undeterred by its recent rejection, the U.S. Navy once again is
seeking state permission to create a 160-decibel noise in the Delaware
Bay for a physics experiment this month and next, renewing concerns
about the project's impact on dolphins, sea turtles and commercial
fisheries.
While the Navy's application to the Department of Environmental
Protection claims the experiment would not affect marine life, the
operators of Salem Nuclear Power Plant plan to install underwater
noisemakers next year precisely because they found that fish avoid
loud noises.
Public Service Electric & Gas Co. expects its sound-deterrent system
to reduce the number of fish killed when they are sucked into the
Salem plant from the Delaware River.
Company tests in 1998 found underwater signals of 123 to 167 decibels
made bay anchovy, Atlantic silversides, Atlantic croaker, weakfish and
blueback herring stay away from the plant's intake structure, said
John Balletto, PSE&G program manager for the Salem permit program.
The signals ranged in frequency from 476 to 121,000 hertz and lasted
a quarter of a second, repeated every second.
"We are trying to deter as many fish as possible from coming near the
intake," Balletto said. "We really think it's going to work."
In contrast, the Navy's latest application for its Delaware Bay High-
Frequency Acoustic Experiment concludes that similar sounds this
summer would have no effect on fish or other marine life in the bay.
The underwater test would be conducted in August and September about
seven miles from the coasts of Delaware and New Jersey near Fourteen
Foot Bank Lighthouse. That's about 30 miles southeast of the Salem
plant.
The experiment involves generating underwater signals of 155 to 165
decibels, ranging in frequency from 500 to 20,000 hertz and lasting
three to 40 seconds.
The DEP rejected the experiment last month, saying the Navy failed to
prove the experiment would not harm marine life and failed to justify
why the test must be conducted in the summer.
The new, more detailed application reveals that there is no
scientific reason why the experiment cannot be conducted at another
time of year.
"Favorable weather conditions and workboat availability primarily
drive the time of this experiment," the application says.
Bob Schoelkopf, executive director of the Marine Mammal Stranding
Center in Brigantine, said the bay currently is filled with marine
life and delaying the experiment would minimize the chance of harming
sea turtles and dolphins.
Dolphins communicate and navigate with sound, and at this time of
year, newborns are learning to socialize, learning the inner language
of their pod and learning their way around the bay, Schoelkopf said.
"This is a very critical time for these animals," Schoelkopf said.
"We were hoping they would hold off (the test) until the end of
September until these animals have moved out of the area."
Sea turtles are abundant now, feeding heavily in the bay, he said.
The experiment could drive away fish the turtles eat, reducing their
food supply as they prepare to migrate south, he said.
PSE&G's plan to use sound as a fish deterrent also adds to concerns
that commercial fish populations could be affected by the Navy test,
he said.
The plant's sound-deterrent system is aimed at reducing the number of
1- to 3-inch fish killed when they are sucked against mesh screens
around the intake. The plant draws about 2.2 million gallons of water
a minute from the river, killing about 5.5 million finger-sized fish
and crabs a year.
The University of Delaware's Prof. Mohsen Badiey has a grant from the
Office of Naval Research to conduct the experiment. Badiey has said he
plans to expand the acoustic study to three additional lighthouses in
the Delaware Bay if all goes well with the first experiment.
That concerns Schoelkopf, who said such expansion would affect even
more marine animals.
"This could affect everybody in the bay," Schoelkopf said. "That's
why I think this (application) is even more critical."
Badiey has said the experiment's sound source is many times quieter
than fish-finders and boat engines that are common in the bay.
According to a notice of the application published Tuesday in the DEP
Bulletin, the public has 15 days to comment on the experiment.
But Andrew Heyl, DEP section chief for Land Use Regulation, said
there are only seven days to comment, as another notice was published
last week in local newspapers.
Address comments to Andrew Heyl, section chief, Land Use Regulatory
Program, Department of Environmental Protection, P.O. Box 439, Trenton
NJ 08625.
* * *
Copyright (c) 2000 South Jersey Publishing Co.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
THE TORNE MOUNTAIN CONCERT - AUG 20
Date: 12 Aug 2000
From: Send...@aol.com
What:
THE TORNE MOUNTAIN CONCERT
Musical Landscapes by GEOFF WELCH
New works include TORNE MOUNTAIN, LAVENDER, CROPSEY SKY
When:
SUNDAY EVENING, AUGUST 20, 2000 @ 7:30PM
Where:
AUDITORIUM at SUFFERN VILLAGE HALL
Price:
$10 suggested donation, at the door to support Ramapo River Committee
Concert program listing and giving levels, in advance: Patron -- $ 100
Sponsor -- $ 50 Friend -- $ 25
For further information call Geoff Welch at 845-753-5634
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
CHANGE IN BEACH CLEANUP DATE - OCT 28
Date: 17 Aug 2000
From: AAT...@aol.com
PLEASE NOTE CHANGE IN BEACH CLEANUP DATE FOR NEW JERSEY:
The Center for Marine Conservation (CMC) sets a date each year for
the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) but not all states do their
cleanup on that date. Those wishing to participate should contact
their local organization conducting the cleanup for dates, times and
locations. The CMC allows a window of time for cleanups to be held. In
New Jersey, Clean Ocean Action (COA) holds it's Beach Sweeps in
October. By moving the date of the cleanup back one month COA had
discovered that it is easier for schools to participate in the cleanup
effort. In September, schools have just started and it is difficult
for some of them to schedule to participate in an event that early in
the school year. After moving back the cleanup date October, Clean
Ocean Action saw a dramatic increase in school group participation.
COA feels that it is important to educate as many students about
marine debris and non-point source pollution.
This will be Clean Ocean Action's 16 year (15th Anniversary) of
conducting beach cleanups. This years Beach Sweeps will be held on
Saturday, October 28th from 9:00AM to 1:00PM. October 28th, is "Make a
Difference Day" (always the 4th weekend in October) and Clean Ocean
Action feel that this is a great event for that day. All volunteers
have to do is show up at one of our meeting locations. A list of the
Beach Sweeps locations can be found on our website
www.CleanOceanAction.org.
All information collected during the Beach Sweeps is sent to the
Center for Marine Conservation in Washington, DC as part of the
International Coastal Cleanup. Clean Ocean Action also produces its
own report on beach debris for the state of New Jersey. The report is
averrable over the web or at any of Clean Ocean Action's offices.
For Further information contact:
Anthony A. Totah, Marine Biologist
Clean Ocean Action
POB 1098
Wildwood NJ 08260
Tel: 609-729-9262
Fax: 609-729-3383
Email: AAT...@AOL.COM
Web: http://www.cleanoceanaction.org/
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Back issues of the Garden State EnviroNews are available at
http://www.gsenet.org/library/11gsn/11gsn.htm
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* G A R D E N S T A T E E N V I R O N E T *
* Tel 973-586-4128 MAI...@GSENET.ORG Fax 973-627-8616 *
* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - *
* Web Site: http://www.gsenet.org *
* Mailing List: gsenet-L-...@topica.com *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
=END=