Township officials urge DEP
to readopt watershed rules
FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — Munic-ipal officials are concerned about water quality and the watersheds in the community, especially since the southern part of the township contains the headwaters for three bodies of water.
At the Township Committee’s April 23 meeting, members of the governing body passed a resolution urging the state Depart-ment of Environmental Protection (DEP) to readopt rules governing watershed management. The resolution was sent to the DEP, to Gov. James McGreevey, to state Sen. Co-President John O. Bennett, to Assemblywoman Clare Farragher and to Assemblyman Michael Arnone.
According to Mayor Eugene Golub, who teaches environmental science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, in the past the rules governing watershed management were adopted by state agencies, rather than by individual watershed administrations. The new watershed management rules look at everything to do with management of the water and find the best way for individual watersheds to remain safe.
"The watershed management rules are a wonderful idea. Fundamentally, it’s a new way to look at watershed management issues," said Golub, who chairs the Gov-ernor’s Water Supply Advisory Council.
According to the committee’s resolution, new rules were codified by law N.J.A.C. 7:15, but on March 18 the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court reversed the adoption of the rules. The reversal was based upon a procedural irregularity regarding the adoption of the rules and not on the rules themselves.
"Whereas, in a footnote, the court indicates that while it is reversing the adoption of the rules based upon the procedural irregularity, it finds the substantive challenges to the adopted rules to be of dubious validity, thereby suggesting that if the rules were adopted in a procedurally correct manner, it is highly likely that any subsequent challenge to those rules would be rejected," the committee said in its resolution.
The resolution informs the DEP that large portions of Freehold Township are considered environmentally sensitive areas and that residential and commercial development within these environmentally sensitive areas is, in large part, serviced by individual wells and septic systems.
Golub explained that watershed basins are everywhere. Some are very large like the Hudson River or the Mississippi River and some are small like the Metedeconk and Manasquan rivers. All of them eventually go to the ocean.
The southern part of Freehold Town-ship contains the headwaters for the Mana-squan and Metedeconk rivers and the northern fringe of the Pine Barrens.
"They are very environmentally important bodies of water and that’s why we have zoning in the area to protect them," Golub said.
The committee is interested in supporting the watershed management plan because the watershed management rules protect the watersheds on a regional basis and on a local basis, the mayor added.