NETCONG (11/29/05) – After a little over an hour during which mayors, freeholders, state legislators and other officials predicted Armageddon for the western area of the state, Mount Olive Councilman Steve Rattner told the audience, "Now I’m going to give you the bad news."

The audience, of about 50, in the Netcong municipal building was there last night on short notice from Freeholders Susan Zellman of Sussex County and Margaret Nordstrom of Morris County to form a united effort against the Department of Environmental Protection Agency’s order that essentially would give DEP complete control of nearly all of the state’s 193 designated wastewater management planning areas.

It was the third meeting in less than two weeks and another one will be called shortly to form a five county coalition task force to fight the order which has a deadline of December 17.

Zellman added that she had heard from a Passaic County official that it would like to join the task force so it would be a six county coalition, she said.

Speaker after speaker, mostly mayors, freeholders and state legislators condemned the order, the department, Commissioner Bradley Campbell personally, and even his politics and motives.

There was a consensus that the order would "bring to a halt nearly all development in Morris and Sussex Counties and sharply curtail it in Warren, Hunterdon and Somerset Counties after untold millions of dollars in preparation work had been spent by several municipalities, private developers and land owners.

Nearly every speaker cited started projects for tens of millions of dollars in new ratables that will not materialize. Rattner cited four million square feet of much needed land for development in the International Trade Zone in Mount Olive that will remain vacant after the developer, the Rockefeller Foundation, has spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in preparation work. Now, it will be wasted if this amendment is upheld, he said, because there will be no sewers to which they can hook up.

Rattner is a certified public accountant who also serves as the vice chairman of the Musconetcong Sewerage Authority. His remarks at the end of the meeting came as an anti-climax….something no one else had mentioned.

He reminded the audience of the likelihood of massive numbers of defaults on municipal and utility bonds that could be expected if the DEP order is implemented.

How could municipalities and sewer authorities be expected to pay for bond issues they floated in good faith to cover new and improved sewer systems if the sewer systems they paid for were not going to be built, he said.

"Default…perhaps tens, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds will go into default. We don’t even want to think about the economic and social impact that would have on the entire state," he said.

The DEP order would give that agency the authority to revoke and restrict the service area designations of sewerage authorities that do not have updated wastewater management plans as required by state law and even would be able to take control of MSA’s remaining gallon capacity.

The DEP maintains that only 13 of the 193 wastewater management planning areas have updated plans and are in compliance with state law. The agency maintains that the Musconetcong Sewerage Authority, which services many municipalities in the Morris /Sussex area and is holding reserves for millions more gallons for future development, much of it already paid for, is not in compliance.

Several speakers were highly critical of the DEP approval process. At one time they had 25 inspectors, now they have six. The normal approval period took two to six years another speaker said, imagine how long it would take with just six people doing it.

Another Mount Olive Councilperson, Colleen Labow, has a business that deals with realtors. "You should hear what I’m hearing from realtors," she said, "they are vitally concerned as are building contractors and labor unions. This would have a tremendous impact on available work. She proposed that when a task force is being organized those groups should be involved.

There’s no question that Campbell stirred up a "hornets’ nest" when he ordered what appears to be a totally unacceptable and unrealistic onslaught on sewer plans that do not meet state regulations.

At one point a member in the audience observed, "why, in the waning days of his stewardship, would he inflict such a horrendous and far reaching order when a new governor is be installed in a little over a month. He should give the opportunity to the new governor. "It’s not smart growth. It’s not even no growth. It’s dumb growth. He can’t do that to a whole region of the state. It’s ill appropriate and ill advised." He then went on to question Campbell’s motives.

State Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Morris) responded to a speaker who said, "there wasn’t one scientific test to support this action."

" You’re wrong," he told the speaker, "it is science…. it’s called political science. It’s their (Democratic governor and Democratic majority in the Legislature) way of getting people to move back to Paterson, Jersey City and Newark. I’m very fearful. He agreed with another speaker who said "they" want the residents here to move to Pennsylvania or anywhere out of this area. It’s an assault by the Democrats on Republican areas of the state, he said. Sewer and property taxes are going up and up and it’s coming fast and strong," he said.

Another speaker observed that within five years taxes in affected towns will double.

Zellman said she notified Campbell’s office about this meeting at 3 p.m. yesterday and received a response later from Lawrence J. Baiar, the director of the Division of Watershed Management that appears to be conflicting.

It stated, "it had come to my attention" that there is some confusion over the effect of the proposed water quality plan amendment…" The letter stated that "since Sussex County’s wastewater management plan is presently in compliance with the rules, the majority of the county is unaffected by the proposed amendment."

"However," the letter went on, the Musconetcong Sewer Authority maintains its own wastewater management plan for those portions of its member municipalities that was last adopted in 1993 and has not been updated as required."

The letter concludes by extending an invitation to meet with Susex County and the Musconetcong Sewer Authority or its member municipalities to discuss the procedures and requirements for updating the Authority’s wastewater management plans.