Posted on July 23, 2018
Township Committee on Monday emphatically declined to decide on a proposal to bring material dredged from the back bays of the area’s barrier islands to a sand mining operation on Goshen Road.The governing body heard from representatives of Cape Mining and Recycling at 560 Goshen Road, who pitched the plan as an important step toward finding a use for the silt dredged from lagoons and bays. The material clogs boating routes and fills lagoons.But finding places for the dredged material has been the biggest challenge to keeping waterways clear.“You can’t dredge until you have a place to put the stuff,” attorney Rocco Tedesco, representing Cape Mining, told Township Committee. Cape Mining wants clearance to bring as much as 262,000 cubic yards of the material to its site in Cape May Court House, to be combined with other material for a number of uses, including fill for residential construction, dirt for sod farms or to cap landfills.
To do that, Cape Mining needs permission from Township Committee, not only to allow the expanded use, but for clearance to truck the material into the township, as required by a township ordinance.
The idea seemed deeply unpopular among the handful of residents who attended the meeting. The site is relatively remote for the most densely developed section of Middle Township, but there are houses nearby. Several residents of adjacent Timothy Lane spoke against allowing the use.
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Some raised concerns about contamination and an increase in truck traffic — the applicants estimate at its busiest the plan could mean an additional 75 dump trucks entering the site per day. Houses in that area rely on well water, and other neighbors suggested the expanded activity could contaminate their water.
Eric Rosina, director of environmental services at Act Engineers, said the material would have to be tested and shown to be clean before it ever left its area of origin. He said the material would be required to meet residential standards, the second most stringent standard under the state Department of Environmental Protection. Material for ecologically sensitive sites has an even tougher standard.
Tedesco described the standard as full-contact residential.
“By full contact, that means that kids can roll around in it?” he asked.
“That is correct,” said Rosina.
But the noise seemed to be the primary concern.
Several residents complained about the beeping noise from the trucks when they back up. Others said the machines that grind down concrete for recycling at the site are far too noisy.
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“The pollution that we’re primarily concerned about is the noise pollution, which we already live with,” said Mary Ellen Wagner.
Some of the complaints were about the company’s existing operations. One woman said it was like her house was being sandblasted when the wind carried sand from the piles onto her property. Her pool also filled with sand.
Neighbors also said work starts on the site earlier than allowed by ordinance.
Speakers said the increased activity at the mining operation will hurt their property values.
Several residents cited a Press of Atlantic City report from March 2017 in which the DEP shut down a similar operation with dredged material from Ocean City and Stone Harbor. Advocates for Cape Mining, which also owns that site, said the issue was the amount stored there, not contamination.
The site is near the Cape May County campus of Atlantic Cape Community College, as well as a section of the Middle Township Bike Path. Trucks would take the Garden State Parkway from Ocean City and come into the township at Exit 10. The trucks would use county roads except for Church Street, which is a township road.
The first source of the material would be Ocean City, where the city government has undertaken an aggressive dredging program for its lagoons along the back bay. The material is taken to an area off 34th Street, known as Site 83, to allow the water to drain off. Rosina said the material is as much as 95 percent water when it is first dredged and has to be given time to dry out before it can be shipped.
The Cape Mining site could also be used for future dredging projects in Stone Harbor, Avalon or any other silted waterway. Rosina suggested the cost would prohibit trucking from much farther away. Township attorney Frank Corrado indicated the township may limit the site to accepting material from within the county, if the use is ultimately approved.
Corrado expected a decision from committee at the Monday meeting, although no resolution was on the agenda. But at the close of the public hearing, committee members said they were not ready to hold a vote on the matter, putting it off to a future meeting.
Tedesco said his client had sent notice to the immediate neighbors about the hearing. He wanted assurance that the mining operation would not be required to give fresh notice to the neighbors for the future meeting.
Source: The Press of Atlantic City
