School: DEP decision delaying project

By: Cara Latham
   UPPER FREEHOLD – Superintendent Robert Smith said Friday that complaints from the public faulting the school board for picking a location where the soil was contaminated is not the main cause of the project’s delay. It’s getting the approval for a Wastewater Management Plan amendment from the state Department of Environmental Protection, he explained.
   "The reason we’re being delayed is the issue of the wastewater treatment plan," he said. "In terms of contaminated soil, when the Board of Education made the initial decision to locate the school on Ellisdale Road, there (was) a willing seller."
   Dr. Smith said that from what was told, that site is the only one the school board looked at that had a willing seller. Further, an official from the DEP said much of Upper Freehold had been used for potato farms, where pesticides had been heavily used, and that he would be surprised if there were any lands where dieldrin was not found.
   However, "the Board of Education committed itself up front to remediating the soil to a point where it’s safe," he said. "Wherever the board builds a school, if there is contamination to the soil, the board has that same commitment."
   The major factor holding up the remediation is the DEP’s approval of the Wastewater Management Plan amendment, he said.
   "Theoretically, we could remediate the soil that’s over there," he said. "But if we did that and couldn’t get the amendment for the wastewater plan, then we couldn’t occupy the land, so we would have wasted the money for remediation."
   Further, "we waited, trying to get a decision in regard to that wastewater management plan amendment before we went ahead and did the soil," he said. "The remediation has to be done, and that looks like three to four months time. We haven’t been willing to start that until we know for sure that we are able" to build there, he said.
   At the Jan. 31 meeting, board member Jeanette Bressi, who was board president at the time the referendum was approved, said "it would have been nice if someone told us (that) not getting these permits was ever a possibility. We met with the DEP and with (the state Office of) Smart Growth prior to the referendum and it was never mentioned, and even as recent as a couple months ago, we had asked to meet with the DEP. They said, ‘Why would the board need to meet with us if their requests will be satisfied,’ which gave us a lot of optimism."
   She added that "it never happened in the history of New Jersey" that a school was not given approval, and "now all of a sudden, rules have changed. We’re hearing for the first time in the two years since the referendum that there’s a possibility of not getting approvals. "Why all of a sudden?" She asked if it had to do with regulation changes with the two state departments.
   Board President Joseph Stampe said a lot of things have changed since the board started the discussion about the new middle school in 2003.
   "We’ve had three governors, we’ve had changes in administration, changes in DEP, changes in Smart Growth," he said, adding that engineer Paul Pogorzelski of Van Cleef Engineering in Robbinsville informed the board one year ago that the project’s timeline was at risk.
   "We’ve never had a letter like we just got from DEP outlining … what the process was going to be," he said. "We now have that.
   During a Jan. 17 meeting school officials had with Adam Zellner, deputy DEP commissioner, Mr. Zellner told the school board that the project "is stuck in the big picture of statewide wastewater management planning."
   He explained that the DEP is being called upon to update its wastewater and potable water supply areas, as projects come up that are inconsistent with plans within their own towns, adjoining towns and within the country. He asserted that the Upper Freehold School District’s amendment is one of 400 such amendments his office is currently being asked to consider.
   Board members also asked if the Planning Board has looked into including sites for future schools in its Master Plan, and Mr. Stampe said the Planning Board would be looking at Master Plan recommendations tonight ( Thursday).
   "You know that you’re going to have to do something with the elementary school, you’re going to have to be doing something with the high school," said board member Kathy Winecoff, adding that the school board should approach the Planning Board soon to discuss options to meet increasing enrollments in both the Upper Freehold and Millstone school districts.