The company was also asked to monitor airborne dust from the quarry.
By: Jeff Milgram
MONTGOMERY – The state Department of Environmental Protection has cited the 3M plant in Belle Mead for an unpermitted discharge of nontoxic stone dust into township waterways, plant manager George F. Amo told the township Board of Health on Wednesday night.
If that wasn’t enough bad news for the company, the board asked 3M to return next month with plans to monitor airborne dust coming from the plant.
Mr. Amo said he was surprised by the request for air monitoring.
"We don’t get many calls from neighbors about dust," he said Thursday.
Mr. Amo said DEP’s notice of violation stems from a discharge into Back Brook on July 16. The DEP could fine 3M or order the company to take remedial steps to make sure the discharge doesn’t happen again.
Two years ago, the DEP issued a notice of violation and fined 3M for a similar discharge.
Township Health Officer David Henry has said there have been at least three such discharges last month.
The DEP did not return calls Thursday for comment on the latest notice of violation.
Mr. Amo and 3M engineer John Zanin came before the Board of Health to explain the company’s storm water management plan and what it has done to keep its stone dust from discharging into the brooks and streams downhill from the plant.
It was during this presentation that Dr. Harry Motto, a past president of the Board of Health who lives near the 3M plant on Dutchtown-Zion Road, said, "The material in the water is not a health problem," but dust in the air is a nuisance. He said the dust is not a problem this summer because of all the rain, but it was a problem during the past winter, which was dry.
"Dust concerns me much more than sediment," said Dr. Motto.
Board President Ken Kirch questioned whether the dust was connected to the plant’s attempt to conserve water.
"Not at all," Mr. Amo answered.
He said the plant is examining ways to cut back on the amount of truck traffic inside the quarry’s 1,600 acres, which would decrease the amount of airborne dust.
Dr. Motto said he suspects the dust is coming off the 10 acres of piles of stone dust, the same material that has been seeping into the water after heavy rains.
Mr. Amo urged residents to call the plant to report dust complaints. Company officials will attempt to locate the source, he said.
Township Committeewoman Ali Henkel agreed that the dust particles are worrisome, but said she still has concerns about the stream.
"I’m worried about the ecosystem of the streams as well. It can’t be good for the sustainability of anything that lives in the stream," she said.
Mr. Amo said the company has added another row of hay bales and built up a berm with silt fences around the piles of stone dust in an attempt to stop the stone dust from getting into the streams.
He said the company has been checking the berm every week and after rainfalls. The company will excavate the berm and remove sediment that builds up as a way to contain the rainwater that is washing the stone dust into the waterways, Mr. Amo said.
He said there is no way to tell how much stone dust was washed into the waterways.
Mr. Amo said the company submitted its storm water management plan to the DEP on June 27 and he expects the state to approve it by the end of January 2001.
The plan calls for the company to build a series of channels and retention basins to contain the flow of water from a 100-year, 24-hour flood, Mr. Amo said.
He said 3M and its consultants will meet Aug. 21 with township engineers in Montgomery and Hillsborough.
"If we get the draft permit back by the end of January, we’ll have the final design in place by the end of March," Mr. Amo said.
He said construction would begin shortly after that.
The company also must submit its plan to control soil erosion and sediment at the same time.
Mr. Henry has said rain washed the stone dust, stored in piles at the 3M plant, into Back Brook or a stream off Dutchtown-Zion Road on July 16, July 26 and July 28. And, he said, it is possible a gray-green material he observed in the stream off Dutchtown-Zion Road on Aug. 2 represented a fourth discharge.
No new discharge occurred this past week Mr. Henry said.
He said last week that the waterway has cleared up, but rocks along stream banks are covered with a putty-like residue.
"We looked in the stream and said, ‘Yep, we still have a problem,’ " Mr. Henry said.
He said the discharge had the same characteristic gray-green color as earlier discharges.
Mr. Henry said the high water level in the stream made it impossible to judge the extent of the discharge.
He said he spoke with a 3M official about the discharge.
"We all want to get to the same point: get the material out of the stream," Mr. Henry said.
Mr. Amo said Mr. Henry saw the residue from the first discharge on July 16, not a new incident on Aug. 2.
He said a DEP official was inspecting the stream as a follow-up to the earlier discharge, and that Mr. Henry was doing some follow-up as well.