BY ZACH PATBERG
STAFF WRITER
DOVER TOWNSHIP — Environmentalists filed a petition with the state
Wednesday calling for stricter clean water safeguards along the Toms
River and its feeder streams.
The petition specifically wants
those still-pristine portions of the river to receive Category One
designation, which would establish a 300-foot buffer along the banks to
protect against encroaching development.
"We have to protect
what we have before it's too late,'' Greg Auriemma of the Sierra Club
said at a news conference in Dover Township. The club and three other
environmental groups signed on to the petition, filed to the Department
of Environmental Protection.
Category One was created as a
safeguard against water pollution by requiring development-free
riverbanks. But the advocates today claim the DEP has been lopsided in
its designations, tending to favor waterways in the state's northern
half.
The
petition calls for the upgrade of segments of the Toms River that
haven't already been built up and are not in the Pinelands, which
already offers protection under the Pinelands Preservation Act. The
segments extend from the headwaters
in Monmouth County eastward to
the Route 528 bridge in the Cassville section of Jackson … where the
Pinelands water protection begins … and then again from the New Jersey
Central Railroad tracks at the Dover-Manchester boundary east to the
Garden State Parkway.
The petition also requests the protection
for some of the river's tributaries, such as Mirey Run, Dove's Mill
Branch, Union Branch and Wrangle Brook.
Correcting an "inequity"
"Though
Pinelands protection through state and federal legislation was a unique
achievement in our nation's history, not all of the Toms River and its
tributaries were included within the Pinelands boundary even though
these streams are truly Pine Barrens in character,'' said Rich Bizub,
director of water programs for the Pinelands Preservation Alliance.
"Category One protections offer the opportunity to finally correct this
inequity after 25 years.''
The current minimum buffer size for
river sections outside Pinelands protection ranges from 50 to 150 feet,
depending on what and how many endangered species live there, said
Denise Garner of Jackson's Environmental Commission.
If the
petition is accepted, it will trigger future such petitions for four
other South Jersey waterways, including Great Egg Harbor River, Salem
River, Cedar Creek and Oldmans Creek, according to Ethan Lavine of
Environment New Jersey.
The 42-page petition was written by
Carter H. Strickland of the Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic. It says
230 miles of the river and tributaries are protected either by Category
One or the Pinelands, leaving another 158 miles unprotected.
It
also says the DEP considered the Toms River as a candidate for the
Category One upgrade in 2003 but, while not following up on that, did
award the designation to six streams and nine reservoirs covering about
200 miles in North and Central Jersey.
The Toms River and its
tributaries are listed on the agency's Web site as qualified for the
upgrade, though they've never been included in a proposal. The waterway
was one of 47 nominated by the public to be designated, according to
the DEP Web site.
"It's important to note that a significant
portion of Toms River is already protected with a (Pinelands
protection), which is better than a C1,'' DEP spokeswoman Karen Hershey
said. "That being said, we just received the petition today and will
certainly
look at them.''
Of the state's 18,000 miles of waterway, the DEP has classified about 3,000 miles as Category One.
Protecting the endangered
The
Toms River is the largest river draining into the Barnegat Bay estuary
and provides habitat to endangered species such as the peregrine falcon
and the swamp pink, the petition states.
"We also face the most intense development in the state,'' added Lavine.
While
his group has pushed for C1 designations in the past, such as the
recent upgrade of the Metedeconk River, Lavine said this was the first
time a formal petition was sent.
Category One was initially
intended for protection of fish habitats in northern waterways and the
DEP still favors those that either feed into reservoirs or are trout
streams. The buffers are part of a storm-water management plan the DEP
adopted in 2004.
Jay Lynch, Dover Township's planner, said the town's master plan, adopted Oct. 25, supports the upgrade.
"We will do whatever we can through zoning and planning to make this possible,'' he said.
