Drinking Water at Risk

UPDATE COLTS NECK MANOR 3/2/24-NEXT STEPS

We have sent a letter to the Director of the Monmouth County Board of Commissioners containing a list of informational items for which we would like the answers to from the NJDEP. We enumerated several specific mappings and testing items that must be provided by the applicant. We hope Commissioner Arnone will share the information with us as soon as it is received!

As reported, we have several concerns about the procedures that were followed by the County Planning Board and the Amendment Review Committee culminating in the Commissioners’ approval of the Amendment to the Monmouth County Water Quality Management Plan (MCWQMP). We believe the Amendment granted by the Commissioners is not in accordance with the procedures adopted by the County Freeholders in 2020 to implement the Clean Water Act, the NJ Water Quality Planning Act, and the 1997 Executive Order of Governor Whitman appointing the County the Designated Planning Agency. The County has put the water quality issue into the hands of the NJDEP and we have questions as to how the NJDEP will handle the permitting process from here on. As it stands now, we do not understand how this project has gotten as far as it has given all the irregularities. There are many questions about the permitting process that we are trying to understand.

We, therefore, sent letters to the DEP Commissioner, Shawn LaTourette, requesting an informational meeting with NJDEP staff that have jurisdiction over the permits that the applicant will or has applied for, and that have knowledge of procedural questions applicable to the amendment to the MCWQMP granted by the Board of Commissioners.

We have additionally requested that the NJDEP have two separate formal hearings: One for a NJPDES-DGW permit. This is a N.J permit mandated under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit program that controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the U.S.: and another for the Amendment to the MCWQMP. We would like these hearings formally advertised in the NJ Register for full public participation. We believe initial hearings that combined the two were procedurally incorrect. We also believe that the information that the wastewater system will not remove fecal Coliform Bacteria to NJDEP standards must be included in the new hearings.

We want Governor Murphy and the NJDEP Commissioner to step up to the plate now, before this project progresses any further. We are concerned about the highly unusual way it has been handled by the NJDEP as well as the County, and are requesting that all applicable procedures inherent in law are closely followed.

Letters from the public to Commissioner LaTourette shawn.latourette@dep.nj.gov would be a way for all citizens to make their voices heard. We want to be granted the informational meeting, and we want formal hearings so that there can be full and open public participation.