County officials pass housing project despite potential water contamination risks
By Sunayana Prabhu
FREEHOLD–The proposed Colts Neck Manor housing project has advanced to the state for final approval after the Monmouth County Commissioners gave it the go-ahead despite strong public pushback.
The commissioners concurred with the county’s planning board recommendations Feb. 22 and amended the county’s Water Quality Management Plan (WQMP) to allow the developer – Colts Neck Building Associates, a subsidiary of Kushner Companies – to exceed the state’s wastewater disposal limits of 20,000 gallons per day, nearly quadrupling the limit to 71,500 gallons a day. The proposed development is on an environmentally sensitive site where failings in the wastewater management system could potentially contaminate the drinking water supply for over 300,000 Monmouth County residents.
Environmentalists have been warning county officials for several years that any runoff from the proposed underground Amphidrome wastewater treatment plant, in addition to inadequate floodwater management, could contaminate local wells and the Yellow Brook tributary to the Swimming River Reservoir that supplies clean drinking water to county residents.
“We have no jurisdiction” on the matter, Commissioner Director Thomas Arnone said in the meeting to the nearly 100 people in attendance – at least 20 of whom had to stand in the hallway – fiercely opposing the decision of the county officials at the Hall of Records Annex.
The commissioners proceeded to vote in favor of Kushner’s WQMP application on the recommendation of the Amendment Review Committee (ARC), a subcommittee of the county’s planning body in charge of studying, reviewing and advising the county commissioners.
While those at the meeting were “dismayed” by the decision, county commissioners maintained their narrative based on ARC’s findings, seemingly disregarding new information in an environmental report submitted previously by the grassroots group Concerned Citizens. According to that group’s report, the treated wastewater from the proposed development, Colts Neck Manor, “will not treat fecal coliform to DEP standards” and the “PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in stormwater and wastewater may pollute groundwater and surface water,” making its way into the wells and water supply of residents.
ARC’s response to the citizen’s report – memorialized in a resolution adopted by the planning board Feb. 14 – says, in part, that “fecal coliform, adequacy of septic disposal field, chemicals in waste stream which emanate from the effluent flow, storm water runoff and management, reliability of the wastewater treatment system, maintainability of the wastewater management system, etc. are not within the County Planning Board’s scope of review or jurisdiction under applicable State rules and regulations.”
Residents React
Residents, members of several nonprofits, professional engineers and real estate agents from the area were furious and let their thoughts be known at the meeting.
“You are the one really in the driver’s seat, not DEP (the state Department of Environmental Protection),” said Kip Cherry, Sierra Club conservation chair, during public comments at the Thursday meeting. “And you should understand, too, that (former Gov.) Christie Whitman gave you the power that was for the water quality management plan, not DEP. DEP can’t do anything until the water quality management plan amendment has passed by you first.”
Francine Campis, a Holmdel resident, argued that the county officials were acting out of a “big brother mentality” and “being forced to do things because we are afraid of big corporations,” alluding to the rumor that Kushner Companies has been threatening builder’s remedy lawsuits if the development is not approved, “under the guise that we’re not meeting some affordable housing obligations. I mean, this is a serious problem,” Campis said.
A builder’s remedy lawsuit is brought by a property developer to force a municipality to change its zoning requirements to permit the construction of high-density housing, provided 20% of the development is allotted for low-income housing. The measure purports to enforce the state’s Fair Share housing Act, but residents believe development cannot come at the cost of clean drinking water for communities.
“You sit in front of a seal that has a picture of farmland,” Campis said, referring to the county seal displayed on the wall behind the dais.
“We’re losing farmland.”
“What good will it be to farm land that has bad water and we’re all dying because of the water?” she asked.
However, Arnone reminded all present that, “No other county preserves land like us here,” in Monmouth, noting the recent preservation of the Holmdel Horn Antenna site.
“Like most residents of Colts Neck, I’m dependent on well water to survive,” said Maier Bianchi, objecting to the developer’s plan.
“We must take a collective stand against decisions that have permanent, irreversible consequences on our descendants,” Bianchi said.
Allegations of impropriety on the part of the county attorney and questions about how Kushner Companies is funding the project were made by numerous individuals during public comments.
Some at the meeting argued that sending the decision to the NJDEP would be inappropriate as the DEP itself was acting on old data from the developer. Carol Robertson from Freehold Township complained that information sent by the developer to the DEP is “not based on the actual project.”
Kushner Companies originally gained approval for 48 townhomes in 2006 but has now expanded the development to include 360 rental units with an underground computer-controlled wastewater system that some say also presents cybersecurity risks.
“What wasn’t adequately addressed was the wastewater assessment, which is in itself a serious issue that warrants extensive investigation,” said Vin Scotti of Colts Neck, taking issue with the reliability, sustainability and maintenance of the computer-controlled proprietary wastewater system. “If anybody would go online now and just type in Google ‘hacking wastewater facilities’ and do a search, you’ll find out that there’s voluminous information about the threats,” Scotti said. “And we’re going to let this go in there?”
“There’s no passing the buck on this. You guys are the buck,” he continued.
In September 2021, Colts Neck Township adopted a resolution allowing Kushner Companies to bring in water lines from Marlboro Township’s Gordon Water Company Inc. to serve the expanded development, but some of the residents are concerned about increased flooding due to the site’s proximity to Yellow Brook.
Some residents came to the meeting with pictures of flooded homes. Nancy Walton, a resident of Colts Neck, shared photos of her neighbor’s flooded backyard across the street from her house. The floodwaters in the photos were almost knee-deep.
With 71,500 gallons of wastewater now permitted by the county from the site, “these houses are going to float away,” Walton said. “What’s going to happen? I don’t know. I’m a little worried. And I hate to see us become Flint, Michigan, or any other place where a lot of people have died.”
Evelyn Murphy, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Monmouth County, speaking on behalf of the organization’s 300 members, said she is “dismayed” at the “precedent-setting” decision. “This project is a tipping point. If you grant approval, you won’t be able to deny others the right to build in inappropriate locations.”
Marianne Cucolo, founder of the Concerned Citizens group, even suggested residents get blood tests to establish a baseline on the amount of PFAS in their bloodstream right now. “If this project goes through and our PFAS levels go up, I think we should all be aware,” she said.
“I am brokenhearted,” said Anita Bonacci, who moved from Brooklyn to Colts Neck, a mile away from the proposed Colts Neck Manor. “I would rather you get sued by these people and pay for that than pay for the damages that cannot be fixed for all of us, my children, my grandchildren.”
The County Responds
Arnone said public concerns over the county’s drinking water quality “are not taken lightly by myself or the board members or the staff here at Monmouth County.”
He said state rules make “our job very limited in the wastewater management amendment review process.”
He also noted that the NJDEP, not the county, is the “real authority” to review concerns regarding water quality impacts, stream buffers, wastewater treatment design, soil suitability and discharge permits.
Arnone added that the on-site stormwater management concerns and impervious surface limits “are regulated through municipal land use ordinance and no challenges were made to those approvals from Colts Neck.”
“Each level of government has specified responsibilities and approval of land development proposals and wastewater amendments, and we have met ours,” he said.
The WQMP is a state measure that ensures clean drinking water for all. It was created for certain municipalities by the 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.
Several residents have petitioned the NJDEP to order current testing, but have not received any response yet.
A change.org online petition to stop the development has garnered 2,250 signatures since its launch in March 2023. The petition is still active.
The article originally appeared in the February 29 –March 6, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
