By karl vilacoba
Staff Writer
A dump truck roams the large pit being constructed at the Brick Reservoir, Sally Ike and Herbertsville roads.
Confident that current water-use levels can be accommodated in the coming months, Brick officials decided last week to go along with most of the restriction easements adopted recently by the state.
On Oct. 24, Gov. James McGreevey relaxed the state’s water restrictions to again allow for activities such as washing cars on weekends, conducting commercial power washing, cleaning decks and windows with a bucket and sponge and watering gardens with a hose.
However, each municipality is free to enact tougher restrictions if warranted, and Brick had "more stringent guidelines than anywhere in the state," according to Mayor Joseph Scarpelli. After meeting with officials from the Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority (BTMUA), the mayor announced that most of the state’s norms would be adopted.
One notable exception to the state’s restrictions is the township’s demand for any lawn watering to be confined to a 20-minute period between 7 p.m. and midnight. State guidelines allow for watering on odd/even days according to address from 6-9 a.m. and from 4-7 p.m.
PHOTOS BY JERRY WOLKOWITZ Workers assemble an access tunnel that will pump water from the reservoir to the treatment plant.
Brick’s time window is designed to avoid heavy use when demands to treat the water are at their heaviest, according to BTMUA Executive Director Kevin Donald.
Scarpelli said he plans to encourage officials from other area municipalities to adopt the same guidelines.
The township struggled to fulfill its water demands during the dry months but is now just about breaking even. Water consumption and production capacity are each at about 9 million gallons per day, according to Donald.
The water comes straight from the surface of the Metedeconk River, which Donald called a fairly unique arrangement for a municipality.
When completely assembled, the tunnel will be buried below the reservoir.
But dependence on surface water from a river, especially one that feeds into the ocean, has its complications. Water levels in the river need to be high enough to hold back ocean water to ensure that it is potable. In September, that balance was lost, forcing Brick to temporarily rely on well water, according to Brick Public Information Officer Bryan Dickerson.
Scarpelli is urging residents to continue their efforts to conserve water in the future. Donald cautioned that the eased restrictions are not indicative of the end of drought problems in Brick.
"I would not say that at all. Until we get back into a full year of sustained rainfall, we’re not going to be out of trouble," Donald said.
With the fall and winter months ahead, the demand for water supplies that would ordinarily be necessary to accommodate hot-weather activities like lawn watering, gardening and recreation will decrease. Still, the township continues to work on alternatives to ensure that it is not caught in a bind such as the one that the summer’s drought conditions presented.
The pumped water storage reservoir currently under construction is progressing well and is anticipated to be completed around next fall, according to BTMUA Reservoir Supervisor David Harpell. The reservoir is currently a massive hole in the ground, 90 to 100 acres, on a 120-acre tract near Herbertsville and Sally Ike roads. Workers will soon begin lining the bottom of the reservoir with thermally welded PVC in the next few weeks. It will eventually hold an estimated 1 billion gallons of water at capacity.
On Friday, work continued on what will be a more than 4-mile underground pipeline connecting the reservoir to the river. Stephen Specht, BTMUA director of engineering, estimated that the pipeline is about 40 percent completed. A cement frame is in place for what will soon be an access tunnel that will hold the 42-inch pipes responsible for pumping water back to the treatment plant.
Although heavy rains like those of the recent nor’easter helped raise the river and its tributary levels, officials saw the storm as an opportunity partially lost. In the future, the massive amounts of water that surged into the ocean will be pumped into the reservoir when it is operational.
Once the work is completed, the reservoir will be off limits to activities that could cause pollution problems. While some fishing and hiking on a path on its perimeter will be permitted, swimming and the use of boats or cars around the reservoir will be prohibited.
To protect the Metedeconk’s water quality, Scarpelli said, the township has discouraged development along its banks and bought up large blocks of nearby land for open space uses in recent years. The mayor said he would like to encourage the other six municipalities along the Metedeconk watershed — Wall, Howell, Jackson, Lakewood, Freehold Township and Millstone — to do the same but can’t automatically expect results.
"We’ve bought basically all the open space along our watershed," Scarpelli said. "That’s the easiest way to handle it. But you can’t just ask Jackson to do the same."
The mayor said he appreciated efforts such as those of Millstone, which, in effect, is protecting the Metedeconk’s environmental quality through recent plans to increase its zoning in its master plan to allow development in some areas on tracts no smaller than 6 to 10 acres.
"It’s part of their town, too, and it’s in their best interests to protect their environment," Scarpelli said.