By Sunayana Prabhu
COLTS NECK – A group of environmentalists are convinced that the drinking water in Monmouth County is at stake if a proposed development on an environmentally sensitive site within the township moves forward.
The grassroots Concerned Citizens group, which includes Colts Neck residents and environmentalists, came before the Monmouth County Board of County Commissioners at its meeting Sept. 28 to raise concerns about developer Jared Kushner’s application to modify the county’s Water Quality Management Plan (WQMP), a state-mandated program ensuring clean water for all. The developer needs an amendment to that plan to construct an onsite wastewater treatment system and disposal field, a computer-controlled sewage processing plant that will sit underneath the proposed residential development, currently called The Estates at Colts Neck, previously known as Colts Neck Manor.
The Amphidrome® wastewater treatment system will serve the 360-unit housing project being developed by Kushner Cos. LLC. The project is located on nearly 40 acres of long-vacant land on Route 537, between Routes 18 and 34, near Colts Neck High School and Five Points Park.
Environmentalists have cited major traffic and environmental concerns due to the site’s proximity to Yellow Brook, a state Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) protected Class-1 tributary that flows into the Swimming River Reservoir to serve drinking water to over 300,000 residents of Monmouth County.
According to a report by the citizens’ group presented at the meeting, the NJDEP approved the system in 2006 when the development called for 48 townhomes with approximately 14,400 gallons per day of wastewater. That approval was “the largest configuration ever for NJ,” the report states; the project has now “increased 8 times,” creating a much larger impervious surface.
In the latest update, the developer is seeking a second modification to the WQMP from the county, and subsequently the NJDEP, that will enable discharge limits to exceed the present 20,000 gallons per day limit by almost 300% or 71,500 gallons of wastewater daily into disposal fields on the site.
The citizens’ group highlighted the high risk of failure within the Amphidrome® treatment plant and the associated disposal fields, citing computer software malfunctions. It also called attention to the lack of an emergency plan and inadequate monitoring regimen in the developer’s application. These issues, together with stormwater management design flaws – all detailed in the group’s technical report – for dealing with routine and major flood runoff, could lead to toxins in the groundwater contaminating local wells, the Yellow Brook tributary and eventually the Swimming River Reservoir.
Members of the group also attended NJDEP’s public hearing July 13 where they learned the developer has a permit pending with the state agency that protects New Jersey’s ground and surface water quality. This is a “revised permit” from the 2006 application for the same treatment plan which cannot proceed until the county votes on the developer’s requested wastewater modification.
The revised permit states, “clear effluent from the Amphidrome Treatment Plan proposed for the site will contain fecal coliform bacteria above the EPA compliance threshold,” RoseAnn Scotti, former Colt Neck mayor and member of the Concerned Citizens group told the board.
“Toxic and carcinogenic chemicals” from the runoff will contaminate drinking water resources near the site, Scotti said, noting this information was not provided to the county before its preliminary decision, according to the citizens’ group members. They urged the county commissioners to consider all information being provided to them before taking a final vote on the amendment.
Others who spoke at the meeting included Richard Orriss, a Colts Neck resident and retired vice president and general manager for Telcordia; Marianne Cucolo, the head of Concerned Citizens; and Kip Cherry, a professional planner and Sierra Club representative.
“We’re talking about something that’s about 35 times larger on this site,” Orriss said, citing software breakdowns, power failures and concerns about the “very large system” shutting down. “You have about a day to bring it back online or you’re going to have raw sewage overflow. So that’s an acute problem,” he said.
Orriss told the board that soil testing done in May 2014 by the developer is “not complete enough to make any judgment about the building of this overall system to work properly.” He further suggested the board consult certified sanitary engineers and soil hydrologists to analyze the proposed The Estates at Colts Neck wastewater treatment system before giving approval.
“You may wonder why, where these things (toxins) are coming from,” Cherry said. Although the project is residential and not industrial, residents living in the units will empty cleaning products, personal hygiene products, pharmaceuticals, and more into the system, creating chemicals “you don’t want in your drinking water.”
The county commissioners abstained from voting on this issue at their previous meeting July 27, after a preliminary recommendation from the county’s planning board to approve the amendment. At the same meeting the commissioners voted to proceed with a land purchase to facilitate traffic safety adjoining the site.
Cucolo suggested the county aided The Estates at Colts Neck with this purchase using taxpayer money. “You’re a little bit out of line,” Commissioner Director Thomas Arnone argued, saying he took “offense” to the comment. Arnone clarified that the county has no jurisdiction over local township approvals and the only “accountability” the county has in the proposed development is ensuring safety because the project is on a county road. The purchase of the property was for signalization purposes, Arnone said.
“Our priorities were safety and so we dug our heels in for where we are today,” he said. “We did our job to make that area safe compared to what it could have been.”
County attorney Michael Fitzgerald clarified that the county paid $60,000 for the acquisition of the property based on an appraisal and is being reimbursed by the developer about $100,000 for the purchase and other improvements, creating “a net zero” for the council.
Fitzgerald reiterated that the project was approved by the Colts Neck Planning Board to fulfill its state-mandated Fair Share Housing obligations.
“We need to stop (saying) there is something that the county can do to quote, stop this project,” Fitzgerald said. “The project would have proceeded without a signalized intersection. And people would have been hurt, if not killed,” he said.
Fitzgerald called attention to the only two areas of concern regarding The Estates at Colts Neck’s application that fall under the county’s jurisdiction: traffic and the WQMP amendment. WQMP, too, should be addressed by Colts Neck Township, Fitzgerald said, because “the county has very little to do with either the water or the quality. We can’t pass on quality here,” he said. “All the county can do is amend its existing plan on where the water that comes from the project can go.”
He further clarified that the county has no authority to rule on whether or not to approve the Amphidrome® treatment plant, monitor its installation or analyze its bacterial levels but that can “certainly be reported” to the DEP to be tested.
Cherry refuted Fitzgerald’s argument, pointing out that the WQMP amendment is “solely” the county’s decision and will enable the final NJDEP permit allowing the developer to start construction.
“It’s not a DEP petition. Your decision goes to DEP and to the governor,” she said. “But it is your decision and that
was the determination of Congress under the Clean Water Act. Those decisions were renamed locally because ultimately, there are folks at your door,” Cherry said.
Arnone thanked the members for a detailed report and assured them that he will review the information they presented to make an educated decision.
“The ball is in your court,” Scotti told Arnone.
The WQMP program was created for certain municipalities by NJDEP based on the Federal Clean Water Act, designed to provide water quality planning in the state and prevent the degradation of drinking water. The Monmouth County Board of County Commissioners is the designated planning agency appointed by the state to implement goals in protecting drinking water within the county.
The article originally appeared in the October 5 – 11, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
