DEP Pushing Bellemead Sewer Plant in Highlands – A Dirty Deal for Dirty Water

DEP continues to move forward on permits that would allow the Bellemead Development Corporation to discharge treated wastewater into the Rockaway Creek in Tewksbury. They have denied a public hearing on a new permit while at the same time pursuing a renewal of the old permit. The public comment period on the new permit has been extended to May 6. The New Jersey Highlands Council has said the project violates the Highlands Regional Master Plan (RMP).

“The proposed Bellemead sewer plant is a dirty deal for dirty water and it just keeps getting worse. DEP is trying to push the permits through in an arrogant abuse of power while ignoring the Highlands Council. They are also ignoring the RMP, Surface Water Quality Standards, NJPDES rules and the Water Quality Management Plan of the town. We believe the Bellemead project would violate the Clean Water Act, discharging wastewater into a high-quality stream, and will cause more sprawl and overdevelopment in an environmentally sensitive area. The plant will cause more flooding and threaten the drinking water of millions of people,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “DEP just ignores its own rules and laws, and will not allow a public hearing on the application as they always have in the past. DEP smells worse than a sewer plant on this.”

As DEP moves ahead with the new permit, they also continue to push for renewal of the project’s old permit, which expires at the end of July. The sewer plant will be able to move forward with either the approval of the new permit or renewal of the old one.

“While DEP is pushing for a new permit, it’s also trying to extend the old permit. They’re trying to get a second bite at the apple, and it’s outrageous to allow two permits to be running side by side. The problem is that the old permit goes back to weaker rules that are no longer in effect and do not protect clean water. When the rules change and the permit expires it can’t be extended, but they keep trying to bring it back. The original permit was granted before Water Quality Planning, the Highlands Act, Surface Water Quality Standards and many other rules and regulations. The old permit violates all of them, and it’s shameful that DEP is trying to keep that permit alive,” said Tittel.

The Appellate Court ruled in 2017 that DEP had not consulted with the Highlands Council before granting the new permit to proceed with the project. Under the Highlands Act, the Highlands Council must be consulted for any sewage treatment plan or sewage service area in the region.

“The Highlands Council said the project violates the RMP. DEP is still ignoring them, even though we had to go to court to get them to meet with the Council. The whole purpose of the Highlands Council is to protect our drinking water, which is why DEP has to meet with them on projects that may threaten that water,” said Tittel. “Tewksbury also opposed the project as a violation of its municipal Water Quality Management Plan. This is exactly the kind of the project the Highlands Act and Category 1 designation was designed to prevent. This project goes against the Highlands Act, the Clean Water Act, good planning, and the environment.”

Rockaway Creek is almost entirely a C1 stream, although the sewer pipe will be in a portion of the river not designated C1. The waterway is also the location of two major supply intakes. C1 waterways carry anti-degradation designation stating there should be no measurable or calculable change in water quality. The project violates NJPDES rules and Surface Water Quality Standards. The New Jersey Sierra Club, along with the NJ Highlands Coalition, Readington Township and Raritan Headwaters Association won an appeal of the permit in 2017. DEP issued a revised permit in February, and then a second public notice correcting the facility address and re-opening a public comment period. That period has now been extended to May 6.

“Every time applications for this plant have been up for the last 25 years DEP has had public hearings. Usually all you had to do was ask and they’d have one automatically. This time they’re not because they don’t want to hear what the public has to say. That’s about as dirty as it gets. DEP’s most important job is to protect our drinking water, and instead they are taking the side of developers. Rockaway Creek is mostly a C1 stream, which is considered the highest quality. The entire stream should be C1. This project would clearly violate Surface Water Quality Standards. The development itself would also roll back Highlands protections,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “The public should be outraged, and they need to comment during the extended public comment period. DEP continuing to push this project forward is shameful.”