Run-off from housing site sparks concerns BY CHRIS GAETANO Staff Writer COURTESY OF EDISON WETLANDS The Edison Wetlands Association (EWA) has voiced concerns over runoff flowing from the nearby housing development into this vernal pool. EDISON- Concerns over runoff from a residential development into a nearby wetland have prompted a local environmental group to urge action from the builders themselves or, failing that, state regulators. According to leaders within the Edison Wetlands Association (EWA), a local nonprofit involved with a variety of environmental issues around the area, mud, dust and clay from the construction of a housing development is running off the site with the rain and is traveling down an incline, coming to rest within the nearby Stevens Preserve below. This has had the effect of covering the area at the bottom of the slope with a thick, reddish-brown silt. The silt has also gone into a nearby body of water, turning it a similar color. Bob Spiegel, executive director of the EWA, said this can have an adverse impact on local wildlife. "We received a call [that] this discharge was going on, and when we get out here … this whole area is silted over with this heavy red silt, and it's essentially just killing everything - there's no frogs, [and] vegetation is struggling to come through," said Spiegel. COURTESY OF EDISON WETLANDS One of the basins dug to control storm water coming from the site. John Shersick, one of the EWA's founders, said this can be problematic for this particular area, which he said amphibians rely on for their reproductive cycle. "It's a vernal pond, it's very important, and they're rare. These vernal ponds are where salamanders and toads, things like this, where they mate and lay their eggs. That's the only place, and then they come up and live on land. But they lay their eggs in the water," said Shersick. He noted that amphibians prefer these sorts of pools because the water dries up in the summer, which means fish and other egg-eating animals cannot live there. The houses in question are being developed by Morristown-based Fenix Investment and Development, which acquired it from the Kara Homes during its bankruptcy. According to the firm's president, Patrick O'Neill, construction began sometime last summer. O'Neill said he was made aware of the runoff concerns by professionals within the township's engineering department and the local regulatory group Freehold Soil Conservation District. In response, the firm began constructing a second basin to collect and process the storm water, but he said the work encountered considerable delays because of a three-month rainy period, when no one could work on the basin after it rained because the water would need to drain out first. It was during this rainy period, O'Neill said, that the runoff into the neighboring property became particularly pronounced. O'Neill said that this caught the attention of the Freehold Soil Conservation District, which issued a stop-work order "about three and a half weeks ago" over concern that the basin wasn't being completed fast enough. "They understood we were hampered in building it because of the wet weather, but they issued the order, which was rescinded about a week and a half ago, meaning we completed the basin and all the things you're supposed to do to control the soil at the site," said O'Neill. In all, he said, the firm has complied with the regulatory demands placed upon it. He said, though, that the problem was never that big to begin with. "Our estimate is that the soil that has washed onto the neighboring property out there now, it's probably the magnitude of two wheelbarrowfuls of dirt. It's not that there has been a mountain that has left our site and gone onto our neighbors' property," said O'Neill. Spiegel said the measures the firm has taken to control the runoff have been insufficient and that more needs to be done. He said that if the measures had been effective, there wouldn't be as much runoff as there was. He also said that the development, technically, would not be allowed under the newest set of state storm-water regulations, which were passed after the development had been approved. Overall, he disagreed with the professionals who felt that not much was wrong. "The people whose job this is are too busy sitting at their desks to come out and do their job. It's much easier to sit behind your desk and say you don't see anything," said Spiegel. A quick walking tour of the affected part of the Stevens Preserve shows that the red silt completely covers the area directly down the slope from the nearest house in the development. A few patches of grass poke up through the surface. A small hole dug in the ground shows that the silt layer is about 2 to 3 inches thick. The ground has the consistency of slick mud and easily cakes onto the bottoms and sides of shoes. A nearby pool of water, the vernal pond Shersick talked about, is about the same reddish-brown color as the ground, and the bottom of the pool is difficult to see. As one walks a few hundred feet from that area, the water grows clearer until finally one can see through it. Sitting at the bottom of the pool are mostly dead leaves. Away from the area, the ground also begins to change - it develops a looser, more earth-like consistency. Spiegel said that this is what the natural state of the area is. There was also concern over the fact that the runoff was going into what has been called the Stevens Preserve, which was set aside as protected land through a 1979 easement. The land was then deeded to the township through the environmental commission in 1982 by Edith Stevens, an avid birder and the widow of John P. Stevens, for whom J.P. Stevens High School is named. "She wanted this land to stay in its natural state. What they're doing here is altering the hydrology and natural topography, and if they don't [fix] it by choice, or if the regulators don't make them do it, we're going to go to court. They're going to have to redo these multimillion-dollar houses," said Spiegel. Shersick said the housing development comes right to the border of where the protected land lies, and compared it to a skyscraper built across the street from one's home. The EWA will continue to pursue state regulatory actions from agencies such as the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Freehold Soil Conservation District. Failing that, Spiegel said, the group will move to court. O'Neill said that his own firm is monitoring the situation and that work is being done to further control the runoff. "Since the stop-work order was lifted, we've had a full compliance inspection, which just happened a few days ago [from the phone interview on April 18], so the regulatory parties have been watching this very closely, and we are watching this very closely," said O'Neill.