By Jen Samuel, Managing Editor
The Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association is raising concerns that local streams in Hightstown and East Windsor are filling up with sediment near the New Jersey Turnpike Authority’s expansion at Exit 8.
”This water didn’t use to be this color,” said Jennifer Coffey, policy director of the Watershed. “It starting turning this color before Hurricane Irene.”
The storm drains near the New Jersey Turnpike are taking on “monster piles of soil,” she said, which then is being carried into local streams.
”It’s the largest current source of unstabilized, uncovered soil, and you drive by it on the Turnpike. It’s not rocket science,” Ms. Coffey said. “Now it’s about time to get attention from the New Jersey State government to address the problem.”
Other groups agree.
July 27, the Environmental Commission of Hightstown sent a letter to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, outlining “concerns regarding the extensive silt buildup that is occurring in the Hightstown Borough’s waterways. The buildup is the direct result of the ongoing construction related to the widening of the New Jersey Turnpike,” said Barbara Jones, chairwoman of the Hightstown Environmental Commission.
”Construction near Exit 8 has generated a significant amount of silt, and with the heavy rains, the silt has flowed directly into Peddie Lake. Without appropriate fences to catch silt runoff, the water quality and flow in Peddie Lake have been severely impacted,” Ms. Jones said in the letter.
As previously reported in The Herald, the National Weather Service reported record rainfall in August in East Windsor and Hightstown.
More than one month after the Environmental Commission’s letter was sent, floodwaters overcame the borough from the night of Aug. 27 until midday Aug. 28 during Hurricane Irene.
”When Hurricane Irene hit, the water level in Rocky Brook climbed by 7 feet,” said Tom Feeney, media coordinator of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, on Tuesday.
He said the Turnpike Authority’s contractor estimated 30 yards of sand were washed off a construction site where a ramp to the new Interchange 8 is being built by Ward Street and in the vicinity of the Rocky Brook.
”That’s the only material we’re aware of that ran off of Turnpike Authority property in that section of the widening during the storm,” he said. “Whether that sand eventually made its way into Peddie Lake, we don’t know.”
Due to the Soil and Sediment Control Act of 1976, Mr. Feeney explained, “Any project involving more than 5,000 square feet of soil disturbance (must) have a soil erosion and sediment control plan approved by the local soil conservation district.”
The Mercer County Soil Conservation District approved the plan to widen the Turnpike in East Windsor, according to Mr. Feeney. Furthermore, he added an agent from the MCSCD inspects the site regularly.
In reference to inspections of the soil erosion and sediment control devices before and after the storm Aug. 28, Mr. Feeney said, “The Turnpike Authority lived up to the letter and the spirit of the regulations.”
Yet, Ms. Jones disagreed with that notion, even before Hurricane Irene.
”Prior to the construction runoff, the lake was safe for swimming, a unique situation for bodies of water in central New Jersey,” Ms. Jones stated in the Environmental Commission’s letter to the DEP. “Now we are concerned not only with the silt buildup, but the general turbidity of the water as well.”
Ms. Jones also said, “Not only has the silt begun to accumulate on the lake’s bottom, but it is creating issues that are affecting water clarity and overall water quality.”
Regional drinking water flows through the heart of Hightstown and East Windsor.
From springs nearby, the water flows north via Rocky Brook through East Windsor and Hightstown until the water reaches the Millstone River.
”The water doesn’t look good. It may not be safe to swim in,” Ms. Coffey said.
As a result, Friday night swims have been canceled in Hightstown.
The cloudiness of streams and discoloration of the water started to happen before Hurricane Irene, she said, and as indicated by the July 27 letter Hightstown sent to the DEP, more than one month before Hurricane Irene reached New Jersey.
Ms. Coffey said the Watershed’s primary concern is what is happening to local streams because they are taking on so much additional soil. Due to that concern, she raised three points:
As streams continue to fill up due to siltation and become less capable of moving water, there is a “potential for long-term increased flooding.”
The siltation is “smothering literally the bottom of the food chain,” including bug larva, fish eggs, dragonfly eggs and so on, which, in turn, impacts fish, frogs and birds, Ms. Coffey said.
”So, that’s a long term concern of ours,” she said.
The siltation is decreasing the depth of the waterways, Ms. Coffey said.
”As our streams become more shallow, because you’re increasing the chance for plant growth (such as lilies, algae), they take the oxygen out of the water, which can lead to fish kills,” she explained.
In addition to Peddie Lake, Ms. Coffey said the water of Etra Lake in East Windsor also has turned brown.
”It will continue to happen unless something happens to better manage erosions,” Ms. Coffey said.
Ms. Coffey said the waters were not brown last winter or summer. However, at the end of July, she said that changed, adding that’s when the Environmental Commission in Hightstown wrote the DEP.
”This is a community that was actively engaged with its local waterway,” Ms. Coffey said.
While Irene caused massive wash-off, the siltation issues caused the streams to fill up while killing the bottom of the food streams. Additionally, streams that never met each other are suddenly connecting, she said.
”There’s more development then we’ve ever had in New Jersey,” Ms. Coffey said. “Water will find a place.”
Ms. Coffey said a 3-foot fence for a 60-foot soil mound along the Turnpike expansion is “undercutting.”
”We should be managing our stormwater better than we are,” she said.
Ms. Coffey stated the Watershed is looking for help from the DEP “to get out here with us to identify the storms and to do a little better with the soil control.”
