A plan to construct a wastewater treatment plant in Plumsted Township has been met with opposition from the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club.
The club’s director wrote to the state Department of Environmental Protection Division of Water Quality on Jan. 27 and stated why he believes the proposed plant, which would discharge water into Crosswicks Creek, would be a detriment to the region.
“We believe this is the wrong plant at the wrong place and the DEP must deny this sewer permit,” New Jersey Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel said. “This sewerage treatment plant threatens water quality and will do a tremendous amount of environmental damage.”
Plumsted officials have said the treatment plant could help to revive downtown New Egypt and serve a planned age-restricted community on Route 539.
According to a draft permit from the DEP, the agency is setting limits for the acceptable amounts of phosphorous, nitrates, total dissolved solids and heavy metals that would be permitted to make their way into the 25-milelong creek.
The Plumsted Municipal Utilities Authority (PMUA) has said the treatment plant would use an advanced membrane filtration process that would use ultraviolet disinfection and biological nutrient removal processes.
Although the authority has said its proposal and the DEP permit adhere to the federal Clean Water Act, Tittel said the plan fails to meet a number of state and federal environmental guidelines.
“The plant itself would not only add more pollution to Crosswicks Creek, but the DEP has ignored its own rules in this process,” Tittel said. “The permit for this plant clearly violates the Surface Water Quality Standards, Clean Water Act, the New Jersey Pollution Control Act and the federal Clean Water Act.”
Of major concern for the group, according to Sierra Club Land Use Issues Coordinator Laura Lynch, is that Crosswicks Creek discharges into the Delaware River and supplies the New Jersey American Water intake at Delran, which provides potable water to the region.
In the letter to the DEP, Lynch said similar plans in the past have been denied by the state for similar issues.
“We believe the DEP made an agreement behind closed doors without any public input or review. That is a serious concern,” Lynch wrote.
Tittel said the plant as currently planned would not meet the state’s surface water quality standards for a number of criteria, including the amount of copper, total dissolved solids and phosphorous.
Lynch and Tittel said the plant would draw too much water from the local aquifer without properly recharging the aquifer after treatment and they described the project as a “depletive use.”
“We have already seen the stream flow drop by half in Crosswicks Creek. The proposed plant would lead to a further drop in stream flow,” Lynch wrote. “This would add to impairment of the stream, because less water in Crosswicks Creek results in less water to dilute the sewage plant discharge, further concentrating the contaminants.”
PMUA representatives attempted to allay those concerns by saying they were moot because water in the area already exhibits a “horizontal flow” due to “the proximity of homes to Crosswicks Creek or its tributaries, the high seasonal water table and dense soils.”
Although local officials have said the construction of a treatment plant will not cause development sprawl in a historically preservation-oriented township, the Sierra Club warned that the infrastructure will forecast the future development of open space.
“Plumsted’s request is for more than permission to degrade a stream; it would be for permission to ignore the law and regulations and allow development like this to happen throughout the state,” Lynch wrote. “This permit would create an open season on important headwaters, streams and rural areas, destroying what is left of New Jersey’s rural character.”