The Morris County Board of Freeholders and Assemblyman Anthony Bucco have authorized an expanded street sweeping and storm drain inspection and cleaning project on county roads around Lake Hopatcong. This is part of a coordinated effort with towns to improve Lake Hopatcong’s health. Lake Hopatcong has been closed to swimming for more than a month because of a series of algae blooms. Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, released the following statement:

“This is just a PR stunt to make it look like they’re doing something when they’ve been doing nothing. More street sweeping and storm drain inspects are too little too late. They should have been doing them all along. After all these years Assemblyman Bucco has been involved in Lake Hopatcong he has not done anything real to protect the lake. Now he’s issuing press releases about cleaning up streets. He should be pushing for a stormwater management plan for the lake, to bring back Septic Management Districts and expand stream buffers. We need more funding for restoration projects for wetlands and natural systems, and to retrofit stormwater systems in existing developments. We must also fix our aging infrastructure and reduce nutrients from failed septics, leaky sewers and combined sewer overflows.

“Lake Hopatcong has been closed to swimming for more than a month because of toxic algae. The algae can cause severe skin rashes and other illnesses. Recent tests showed the algae count increasing in many areas of Lake Hopatcong. We could reach a point where the lake itself collapses. Bucco’s issuing press releases about sweeping streets because he wants to sweep these problems under a rug. Lake Hopatcong’s crisis is a direct result of the state’s failure to properly protect our waterways. They have no watershed management programs. They have not addressed stormwater management and failed septics. They’ve done nothing with nutrient loads and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) to limit pollutants. They have not controlled overdevelopment.

“Assemblyman Bucco bears some of the responsibility for Lake Hopatcong’s problems. He voted against the Highlands Act, and opposed Stormwater Management Utilities and C1 categorization of streams. He supported Christie-era rollbacks that got rid of the Septic Management Districts and weakened stormwater protections, rollbacks that still haven’t been reversed. He opposed dock fees that would provide money to help clean up lakes. Now he wants to clean up streets and storm drains. That’s not closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. The horse is 50 miles down the road. He attacks every program to help the environment, and then when something goes wrong and the public is an uproar, he pretends to do something. Bucco’s anti-government, anti-environment, anti-regulatory policies have helped create the pollution problems in Lake Hopatcong. A little cleanup now doesn’t accomplish anything.”