HARMONY PROJECTS COMMITTEE
phone and fax: 908-454-4141
Sent: 11 May '07 16:42
Mr Larry Baier, Director
Watershed Management, NJDEP
Re: block 35 and lot 1,
Dear Mr Baier:
I am writing in response to the written decision of the NJDEP denying
recognition of a C-1 tributary to the Buckhorn
Creek issued March 27, 2007 at the above identified property.
The NJDEP storm water management regulation (7:8-5.5) specifically mandates
only two choices "waters as shown on
the USGS Quadrangle Maps or in the County Soil Surveys". Please note the
word "or"; one or the other source. It does
NOT give a developer the option to substitute an alternative method or the DEP
or a Town to review one and certainly
doesn't provide for the NJDEP to create a procedure for exemption which is what
is being followed here, according to
NJDEP staff. I request a written copy of the policy that NJDEP staff has used
in this case.
Here is the regulation:
(h) Special water resource protection areas shall be established along all
waters designated Category One at N.J.A.C. 7:9B and perennial or intermittent
streams that drain into or upstream of the Category One waters as shown on the
USGS
Quadrangle Maps or in the County Soil Surveys, within the associated HUC 14
drainage.
Link: http://www.nj.gov/dep/rules/adoptions/2004_0202_watershed.pdf
Since this tributary to the Buckhorn is noted on the County Soil Survey map, it
is therefore unjustifiable for the NJDEP
to invent such tools as aerial photography to second guess the status of this
tributary.
With this in mind, please issue a correction letter to the applicant.
Sincerely,
Mike King, Chairperson
PRO
cc: Senator Leonard Lance
cc: Bill Wolfe, PEERS