The
Activists assail development near protected streams
They blame state for not enforcing buffer zone on former
farmland
Posted by the Asbury Park
Press on 10/12/06
BY KIRK MOORE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
A rule
exemption originally designed to let farmers keep working their fields near
state-protected streams is being interpreted to allow houses to be built on
former farmland inside 300-foot-wide buffer areas,
"This is a
real abuse, and we need to deal with it," said Bill Wolfe of the state
chapter of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and a former
official with the state Department of Environmental Protection, which regulates
the stream buffers.
Some 27
environmental groups from around the state went public with their complaints,
which started when local activists from the
DEP officials
are still reviewing the issues that activists have raised and were a little
surprised by the groups' public announcement, said Larry Hanja, a DEP
spokesman.
"We're
committed to doing this and will follow through," Hanja said, adding that
DEP officials gave that message to activists last week.
Environmental
activists say they have been talking since the summer with top DEP officials,
seeking more strict interpretation of the 300-foot buffer rule along Category 1
bodies of water. Called C-1 for short, those streams and lakes are classed as
among the cleanest in the state and are considered critical for the
drinking-water supply and for freshwater-fish habitat.
In Monmouth and
Ocean counties, the
As a DEP
employee, Wolfe said, he was part of discussions about the stream protection
rules with former DEP Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell. The agency wanted rules
that would let farmers keep working on their land in the new buffer areas, so
"the phrase "active agriculture' was put in there for a reason,"
he said.
But in
reviewing new housing developments on farmland, the agency has been
interpreting that rule to allow construction within 150 feet of streams, well
inside the 300-foot buffer required of other developers, he said.
Buffer areas
are essentially land that is to be left undisturbed between new development and
the edges of streams, so that vegetation and the native soil structure can help
filter out sediment and pollution carried from stormwater
runoff. After the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the 300-foot rule last
spring, "that's when we realized, "Hey, wait
a minute.' They hadn't been enforcing the buffers, even when the court said
they can," said Michael King of the League for Real Smart Growth, a
In one case in
Hunterdon, the 300-foot buffer was waived after a DEP official saw an aerial
photograph showing mowed fields, according to Laura Oltman of the league. But
the property had not been actively farmed for a decade, and the DEP decision
will allow half of a 44-unit townhouse development to be built within 150 feet
of a C-1 stream, she said in a prepared statement.
Stream and
wetland buffer area widths vary by terrain and region in the state, reflecting
what environmental regulators say are different needs in those places. While
150-foot buffers are deemed sufficient in some regions, that
width doubles along C-1 streams and in many parts of the Pinelands,
where experts say water quality needs greater protection.
Kirk