MOUNT OLIVE (11/17/05) – The battle local officials waged in opposition to the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act was just a skirmish compared to the "all out war" the State Department of Environmental Protection is experiencing with its latest proposal to put a lid on permits for most wastewater treatment plants in large portions of the state, particularly in Morris, Sussex and Warren Counties.

The second of three public hearings on the proposal was held yesterday in Morris Township where speakers expressed the same outrage they and others expressed last Saturday in Mount Olive.

Councilman Steve Rattner, who also serves as vice chairman of the Musconetcong Sewerage Authority (MSA) called the DEP proposal "ill conceived and devastating" for the area. If implemented, development in Morris, Sussex and Warren counties for all intents and purposes would be stopped because there would be no sewer capability to service them, he said. He calls it a "disaster."

Rattner charged that the DEP lacked scientific backing; the maps outlining the new sewer service areas were inaccurate; the proposed rules contradicted some current land use rules and he questioned whether the DEP has the staff to review all 180 wastewater management plans the amendments call for.

Larry Baier, director of the State Division of Watershed Management in the DEP, who conducted yesterday’s hearing, said the DEP recommended standards several years ago but has enforced only put part of their recommendations. As of today only 13 of the 193 wastewater management planning areas in the state have fully updated plans in compliance with state laws.

Under the proposed rules change, scheduled to become effective on December 17th, the DEP would have the authority to revoke and re-designate the service areas of sewerage authorities that do not have an updated wastewater management plan in compliance with the state law.

The proposed rule also would give the DEP control of the wastewater management planning areas, including municipalities that are serviced by the Musconetcong Sewer Authority.

The rules amendment states in part: The lack of a comprehensive and updated wastewater management plan may lead to a greater density of development than is appropriate or sustainable in terms of water resources because the cumulative impacts of development in the wastewater management plan area have not been evaluated.

"The whole thing is contradictory. If you are not in the Highlands area they will be revoking all sewer permits if the pipes are not already in the ground and operating," said Rattner

MSA Attorney Larry Kron said, if adopted, the proposed amendments would withdraw sewer area designations for 193 wastewater management plans largely located in Morris, Sussex and Warren Counties.

Kron explained that sewer area designations would be withdrawn despite the fact that MSA’s wastewater treatment facility presently has an excess capacity and MSA has contractual obligations to reserve that capacity irrespective of local zoning requirements. If withdrawals are enforced, he said, virtually no sewer permits would be issued for large portions of the State Planning Areas for several years.

MSA Engineer Lee Purcell stated that the MSA wastewater management plan had been approved by the DEP several times over the past 10 years and never had indicated it was out of date.

Purcell, who heads an engineering company in Fairfield, is a consultant to towns, sewer districts and utilities authorities. He explained that the DEP is seeking to re-allocate 2.2 million gallons per day of sewerage capacity reserved by MSA’s member municipalities and divert that capacity to Jefferson Township and Lake Hopatcong. Such a diversion would be undertaken despite the fact that MSA’s member municipalities have paid to reserve that capacity pursuant to sewer service agreements and they depend on the capacity for future growth.

He said implementing the proposed rules’ changes at this time and on such short notice would cause economic harm to developers, towns and regional sewer authorities, to say nothing of the negative impact it would have on jobs and taxes. He suggested it be scrapped or at least delayed.

Purcell was one of about 25 speakers at yesterday’s hearing. The meeting in Mount Olive drew about 75 including State Sen. Anthony R. Bucco, Assemblymen Alex DeCroce and Guy R. Gregg, Morris County Freeholder Margaret Nordstrom and Sussex County Freeholder Susan M. Zellman, and members of the public and private sector.

Purcell said the DEP does not present clear rules, and allows municipalities to seek approval for projects under regulations that are changing all the time.

He and others also questioned the authority of the DEP to propose such changes, saying he believes the proposed amendments are a violation of the state’s rule making process and might be better proposed through legislation.

Officials from several municipalities talked about the devastating effects the proposed amendments would have on their municipalities.

Rattner said in Mount Olive officials fear the rules could severely affect much needed development in the sprawling International Trade Center. It could essentially eliminate hope of further expanding one of the regions’ largest light industrial/office campuses.

The Trade Center accounts for a large percentage of the local property tax base. Mount Olive officials hope to see further growth at the Trade Center to add to the municipality’s commercial tax base. The trade center is located within the planning areas that stand to lose the capability to make future sewer connections.

The Netcong Borough Council adopted a resolution last week asking DEP to reject the proposed rules amendment because they could "result in catastrophic economic damage to Netcong and they are inconsistent with the state’s principle plan for "Smart Growth."

Netcong Councilman Greg Keller said he believes, however, that the new rules won’t endanger the borough’s plans to redevelop the train station area that is proposing some 200 residences and 20,000 square feet of commercial space. The borough officials are confident the municipality already has enough sewer capacity reserved to meet the needs of the planned train station redevelopment but said an additional 30,000 gallons would have to be acquired to move ahead with a separate redevelopment proposal that is being considered for the area along Allen and Stoll streets.

Netcong has a state approved "town center" designation and is supposed to be exempt from the proposed rules. Even though the borough is exempt, Netcong officials say a clarification is needed from DEP to ease their concerns that the State may dip into the existing sewer capacity reserved for Netcong at the MSA. Such a move by the State also could endanger the train station area redevelopment, they said.

Council President Elmer Still also took issue with DEP’s authority to propose such a sweeping change without state legislation. "DEP is on an island by itself," he said.

Officials of the municipalities served by MSA are fearful DEP is looking to take away already paid for sewer capacity reserved to them by legal contract and instead direct the capacity to the Lake Hopatcong communities of Jefferson Township and Hopatcong.

In Randolph Township the proposal could hamper plans for developing the Route 10 corridor and establishing a village center which has been under study in Mount Freedom.

Township Administrator John Lovell has said that even though the township council had decided not to expand sewer lines throughout the community, the availability of public sewers is not a real issue for the two sections considered most desirable for commercial development.

Most of the Mount Freedom area could be connected into the Butterworth Treatment Plant in Morris Township, said Lovell. "We’ve been talking to them and are nearing agreement to help finance the expansion of their plant. All of the money spent on these plans might have been wasted. Lovell also said the township had planned to extend sewer lines into the Raritan basin heading southwest along the Sussex Turnpike and down Calais Road, but that is not likely to be done because state officials have made it clear they don’t want inter-basin land transfers.

Morris Township has been working with the state for the past ten years to get an approved wastewater management plan and a lot of money has been spent on the studies said Lovell. It’s a very slow process.

Lovell sees a different conflict between the Highlands Act and the DEP’s proposed rules. I consider this to be a slap in the face to the Highlands Commission, said Lovell. The big issue from my perspective is who is in charge with the Highlands. The Commission said we have a planning area and preservation area. The DEP is saying you can’t build anywhere. This is something we have to take very seriously, said Lovell. If an area is to prosper it has to have to have access to sewers.

"It is like the much talked about state map, said Lovell. It sounds like an offshoot of the statewide plan put out by the McGreevey Administration. The process is ongoing. Put that map out, shock everyone, and it gets the discussion going."

"Shocking local authorities into action may be all the DEP is trying to do with the proposed rules, but perhaps they also need to revisit their own procedures," he said.

Rattner is one of the many public officials crying, "foul;" that the DEP is trying to rush this measure forward. Rattner said the DEP proposal is part of a bigger picture. The way they put this proposal out is "sneaky," he said. "They’re holding this public hearing today when most local officials are attending the League of Municipalities Convention. The final hearing is to be held around Thanksgiving. Then they allow only 15 days for comment before the rules take effect. They’ve never done that before. I think the whole thing is political, said Rattner. "

Rattner said quite a few representatives of communities in Morris County, commercial developers, county officials and state legislators met at the Mount Olive Municipal building last Saturday to discuss what he terms is "a disaster for most of the towns in the region. The Democrats are undermining suburban and rural areas. They’ve put a halt on school and local aid, now they’re attacking our need for economic development. They want people to move to the cities or Pennsylvania This action, if successful, is sure to devalue people’s property."

Rattner said the International Trade Center attorney, Marilynn Greenberg, said at last Saturday’s meeting that the ITC has spent more than $4 million on development and an additional $4 million in plans for future expansion. "They have clients, but because they are flowing only a couple of million gallons per day, they may lose the rest, said Rattner. It isn’t just the sewer allocation, said Rattner. ITC has invested in roads, a train station, and so much more….plus a lot of needed jobs would be lost."

Another project that would bring jobs to the area is the Compac property located on Love lane off Route 46 near the boarders of Mount Olive, Netcong and Stanhope. "They just spent $15 million cleaning up the property, which had been designated a "brown field" project, said Rattner. Now they’ve been told they can’t get public sewers or put in a septic system"

Rattner said the ban on new septic systems only affects developers who are building more than five homes, not individual homeowners. We have a treatment plant ready to handle the ITC, said Rattner. The plant is built for 4.7 million gallons per day and we are treating about 2.5 million. Mount Olive also has spent $309 million putting pipes in the ground. The remaining unused capacity is already committed.

However, the ban on new connections to sewer systems is going to be a problem for individual homeowners with failing septic systems who have been planning to connect to a nearby sewer main unless they can demonstrate a public health risk.

Ed Ho, director of the Rockaway Valley Regional Sewerage Authority (RVRSA) that serves sections of Randolph and Mine Hill Township said his service area is included in the DEP’s outdated wastewater management plan list.

"We received conditional approval of our plan on March 9, 2000," said Ho "but we’ve been lumped in with the others as not being approved because we don’t meet the DEP’s time frame. Ho said the RVRSA has spent over $100,000 in preparing their wastewater management plan with most of the cost involved in mapping. "They told me one of the changes they wanted was to use a GIS (Geometric Information System) format, said HO. That meant obtaining the new system and transferring all of our data. It takes time."

Ho said it took approximately six to seven years just to receive DEP’s conditional approval. If agencies continue to deal with such a lengthy DEP process, economic development in most of Morris County may come to a standstill."

"The RVRSA was created in the 1970’s to alleviate the problems of failed septic systems, " said Ho. We have 200,0000 gallons per day of capacity set aside, dedicated to helping property owners whose septic system fails. The DEP’s proposed rule would not allow that to happen. If someone’s septic system failed, they would not be allowed to connect to the public sewer even if the sewer main runs right past their house.

The Musonetcong Sewerage Authority was created in the 1960’s to provide sewerage treatment for the boroughs of Netcong and Stanhope. In 1972 the MSA completed construction of a 2.275 million gallon per day sewage treatment plant to allow expansion.

The capacity of the water treatment plant was expanded in 1996 to 3.63 million gallons per day and in 2002 the capacity was again increased to 4.31 million gallons per day. As of this date the MSA has approximately 2.2 million gallons reserved for growth of its member municipalities. This is of particular interest to the International Trade Center development in Mount Olive.