Trenton — Despite its own employees’ recommendations,
the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has abandoned specific
plans to strengthen the stream encroachment permit program, according to documents
released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
Under what is commonly known as the “stream encroachment permit”
program, DEP regulates development proposed along stream corridors and within
flood hazard areas in order to avoid and minimize flooding, erosion, sedimentation
and adverse water quality impacts.
In October 2002, DEP staff responded to chronic statewide flooding, degraded
water quality and serious weaknesses in the permit program by developing recommendations
to strengthen the permit program. The recommended new restrictions included:
- Expanded stream buffers, from 25-50 feet-wide to 75-100 feet-wide, a change
that would protect thousands of miles of NJ streams; - Stricter limits on construction and fill in flood hazard areas;
- Eliminate loopholes in order to protect sensitive headwaters streams;
- Stricter protections for natural stream corridor vegetation; and
- Mandatory conservative flood hazard area mapping requirements.
Employee recommendations were subsequently presented to DEP Commissioner Bradley
Campbell for policy review. A draft rule proposal was finalized in mid-2003,
which Campbell pledged to move forward. However, despite the established need
to strengthen the permit program to address stream protections, this past Monday
in the NJ Register, DEP published notice of its intent to readopt the existing
rules without change.
“DEP has snubbed their nose in adopting stricter standards recommended
by agency professionals to protect water quality and reduce flood risks,”
stated Bill Wolfe, Director of NJ PEER. “More delay is simply unacceptable,
given the huge economic and environmental costs of flooding across the state.”
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* PEER, NJ Sierra Club, NJ Environmental Federation,
NJPIRG will hold a press conference at NOON today in Room 109 of the Statehouse.*
See
the DEP stream encroachment rule proposal
See
the March 2003 “launch memo” for the rejected DEP staff recommendations
See
the October 2002 DEP staff side-by-side comparison of proposed changes and existing
rules
New Jersey PEER is a state chapter of a national alliance
of state and federal agency resource professionals working to ensure environmental
ethics and government accountability.
