Posted on August 17, 2017
By Nanette LoBiondo Galloway, ShoreNewsToday
Gov. Chris Christie on Monday, Aug. 7 signed bipartisan legislation co-sponsored by Assemblymen Vincent Mazzeo (D-Atlantic) and Chris Brown (R-Atlantic) to limit NJ Department of Environmental Protection shellfish habitat rules and make dredging of the back bays easier. Democrats Bob Andrzejczak, Bruce Land and John Burzichelli also sponsored the bill.
The law makes it easier for marinas to obtain dredging permits by limiting outdated shellfish habitat rules.
Mazzeo said the law would help small businesses, marinas and boat owners.
“This is an important industry to Atlantic County, and limiting DEP’s outdated rules, which are hurting businesses, is something we need to be working towards,” Mazzeo said.
Brown said the DEP is using shellfish maps that are more than 50 years old to issue a marina dredging permit, despite having no shellfish beds in the waterways. The new law would help local marinas, dockside restaurants, bait and tackle shops, and entertainment and recreational amenities by making it easier to dredge local waterways.
“Nearly 50,000 families rely for their jobs directly on visitors who come to Atlantic County to enjoy the water,” Brown said. “However, if we do not dredge and maintain our back bays, the silt will make it difficult if not impossible for boats to move through our waterways causing the families whose jobs are connected to boating and fishing to suffer.”
Currently, regulations prohibit dredging in any areas that could contain a shellfish habitat, but Margate attorney John Scott Abbott said there are no shellfish near the city’s marinas and bulkheads and any shellfish that would collect in the those areas would most likely be contaminated and not edible.
“Shellfish habitats are over-regulated in almost all instances, and drives up the cost of dredging so that it is cost prohibitive,” Abbott said. “Other states have made the application process more streamlined.”
Assembly Bill 4152 relaxes shellfish restrictions to allow dredging permits on the established footprint of marinas in existence for the last 10 years; along a 75-foot wide direct channel between any marina and its docks and the closest state or federal navigation channel; within 250 feet of a bulkhead supporting upland development with a water dependent use over the last 10 years; and within 250 feet of the mean high water line adjacent to an upland development with a water dependent use for the last 10 years.
“Dredging is essential for marinas and boaters to thrive in this economic climate,” Andrzejczak said.
Land said the law would help fishers compete in a regional and national marketplace, and that continuing outdated regulations is a burden businesses and the economy.
“Fisherman, marina owners and small businesses need access to their channels, and by limiting the DEP’s outdated rules, we’re better able to aid the industry which was been struggling,” Burzichelli said.
A person dredging will still have to obtain all other permits and approvals required by federal, state and local laws.
Source: ShoreNewsToday
