The decision to call off a scheduled town meeting on the future of the Brick Landfill makes sense –– for now.
Experts from the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Transportation were scheduled to share their knowledge of the Superfund site’s remediation with Brick residents at a Dec. 4 forum. Some believe the meeting was called to soften up opposition to a plan that would allow the deposit of dredged materials at the landfill.
Truckloads of material from the Belmar Marina floor were dumped at the site for a few days this spring with the Township Council and administration’s blessing. The remediation plan was to stabilize slopes in the terrain which would have caused erosion to adjacent yards. The dumped material was said to be an environmentally safe mixture of sand and soils.
According to the township administration, the operation would have brought the town $1 million to $2 million in revenue through a fee of $5 per cubic yard. Officials said those funds could have been used to offset the site’s remediation costs, which have set Brick back millions of tax dollars in recent years.
The council rescinded the Belmar deal after a backlash from neighbors of the landfill.
The plan may have been hasty and its execution may have given some the impression it was deliberately being kept quiet, but it may have been a good plan. Without the benefit of the Dec. 4 forum, residents may never know.
The forum could have been educational for all of the neighborhood’s new residents, and Brick as a whole. The jargon-laced language of DEP reports on the matter might read like Farsi to a layman, but if people listened to the experts, and were still uncomfortable with dredged materials being deposited at the landfill, then at least they would have the chance to question the experts and form an educated opinion based on the information given.
There is no sense in holding the meeting now. The lame duck Democratic council will be gone in a month, so any last-minute decisions could be overturned.
The Republicans were critical of the dredge plan during the election. Even if they’re not inclined to resume the Belmar deal, or anything resembling it, a forum on the landfill could still be useful for clearing the air on this controversial matter.