By DON STINE
The pressure is on to convince Wall Township officials to allow dredge spoils from Shark River to be held on a 10-acre marsh area in the township.
Dredging is desperately needed to save the Shark River from becoming a salt-water wetlands, officials said, but Wall Township officials are refusing to allow a 10-acre marsh area to be used to hold dredge spoils while they dry.
The materials are not harmful or toxic.
“Without the dredging we will end up with a salt-water wetland and the river will turn into a different kind of environment,” said Thomas E. Rospos, a consultant with Birdsall Engineering who is overseeing the project.
Representatives from communities around the Shark River, except Wall Township, attended a special meeting on the project last Thursday in Neptune City.
The estimated 10-year project, which received state funding in 2005, calls for the dredging of about one million cubic yards of sediment from the Shark River. The sticking point in the entire process is that Wall Township refuses to allow a 10-acre site, off Marconi Road on the river, as a site for the dredge spoils to dry.
The site was donated to the township in the 1950s by the federal government and has remained unused ever since. Dredge spoils were last dewatered there in the 1930s. Wall Township officials have said they object to truck traffic, are concerned about how long the project will take and worry there may be an odor associated with the project.
“I have assured them there isn’t (an odor),” Rospos said.
Rospos said there are no residences on the short section of Marconi Road that the trucks will be using before they get onto Route 18 and that there are only a couple of homes on the return trip when the trucks will be empty.
Dredging will be done in the late fall or winter months and an estimated 150,000 cubic yards of silt would be removed under the first phase.
The dredge spoils need to sit for about six months in order to dry and be removed.
“Wall Township has owned the land for about 60 years and can’t do anything with it because it is mostly wetlands,” Rospos said.
Residents were told at the meeting that more odors are created by allowing the sediment and silt to lie in the river and decompose than to dredge it out and remove it.
Belmar Mayor Kenneth E. Pringle said he knows how difficult an issue this is because his borough dredged a portion of the river several years ago.
“Belmar dumped the dredge spoils near a residential area (off River Road) and we never had a complaint about any smell. If it smelled even a little bit we would have had complaints,” he said.
Pringle said future maintenance dredging after the main project is complete would require less land to place the spoils.
Officials said they are afraid the state grant money will be lost if the project does not begin soon, especially given the recent economic crisis.
Neptune Township Committeeman Thomas J. Catley said the state Department of Environmental Protection agency may provide up to $1 million to $1.5 million to renovate the dredge site once the project is done with walking areas, views of the river, a public dock, and a floating arts center.
“It could be a living, breathing science experiment,” he said.
Catley said the stance of Wall Township officials is inexcusable.
“This is a classic not-in-my-back-yard argument,” he said.
Representatives attending the meeting said they want to make sure Wall residents have the facts and confront their governing body so that they will support the project.
Various officials said they are upset that no Wall Township representatives even attend the other various meetings about the dredge project.
“Every time this has been discussed we have run up against a brick wall in Wall Township,” said Neptune Mayor Randy Bishop.
Bishop said the dredge spoils can even be turned into a beneficial garden or landscaping product that could be sold with Wall Township getting some of the money.
He said one of the largest problems relating to the dredge project was solved when Neptune agreed to take the dredge spoils at its landfill.
Neptune City Mayor Thomas A. Arnone said the various municipalities are trying to save a natural resource before it’s too late.
“We need to get Wall Township on board or this project is not going to happen. I think Wall needs to hear from its people. We need the support of residents. This (grant) money can only dry up,” he said.
Wall Township resident Robert Forsyth said he is all for the dredging project and doesn’t understand his home town’s refusal to participate.
“No harm, no foul- why not? What can I do to help?” he said at the meeting.
Forsyth said he believes the matter needs to be taken to the people of Wall.
“I’m all for the dredging,” he said.
The surrounding municipalities are inviting the public, local environmental commissions, and Wall Township officials to a special meeting on Wednesday, Nov 12 at 7 p.m. at the Avon municipal building’s all-purpose room to further discuss the matter.
“All people say they want is dredging yet Wall officials say their residents don’t want it and I find that Wall residents are misinformed,” said Ed Lippincott, executive director of the Shark River Cleanup Coalition.
Read more about your town by picking up The Coaster at your local newsstand or subscribe today.
Published every Thursday.
