Action Center
Monday July 21, 2008
Officials complain West Paterson Salt Shed is Waste
Project required to comply with pollution rules
WEST PATERSON—The borough will fulfill a federal environmental mandate by spending more than $280,000 on a salt shed that local officials say they don’t need.
“I’m not happy about it,” Mayor Pat Lepore said Friday. “I think that what we have in place was fine and it’s another mandate by the state which is forcing the town to increase taxes for something I don’t believe is necessary.”
In 2004, in an effort to comply with the Federal Clean Water Act, the state Department of Environmental Protection mandated that all municipalities store road salt in sheds. The federal act regulates and proposes ways to eliminate water pollution and ensures that surface waters meet quality standards.
Salt is required to be stored in a shed so that it does not seep out into the drinking water supply. More than half of existing water pollution problems stemmed from improper storm-water management, according to documents written when the state Department of Environmental Protection introduced its storm-water management regulations in 2004.
The Borough Council voted Wednesday to bond for $289,304 to build a salt shed. The borough currently stores its salt in the Department of Public Works parking lot on Brophy Lane, between concrete barriers, Lepore said, adding that there has been little to no salt runoff reported when it rains.
William G. Dressel Jr., executive director of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, said most municipalities have complied with the regulation, but several have not, according to Barry Chalofsky, chief of the state Bureau of Nonpoint Pollution Control in the Division of Water Quality.
“We have issued thousands of dollars in fines to those who have failed to honor their obligations,” Chalofsky said Friday. All municipalities were supposed to have a salt storage unit in place by April 1, 2007, he added.
Lepore said the borough avoided fines by filing for extensions so engineering studies could be completed to determine where to place the salt shed. Borough officials decided to build the shed a few feet away from where the salt is currently stored in the Department of Public Works parking lot. The shed will be in place by the end of fall, Councilman Keith Kazmark said.
Kazmark, like the mayor, said he believes the salt shed is a waste of money because once the salt is spread on the ground it is likely to seep into the waterways.
“We’re housing something that is going to end up on the ground anyway,” Kazmark said Friday. “What is the philosophy of having us do this when towns are facing economic hard times? Why is this high priority?”
Jim Waltman, executive director of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, a non-profit environmental organization based in Mercer County with a focus on water supply protection, said salt sheds can actually save communities money in the long run.
Each year the state spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to purify water with much of the cost being shouldered by taxpayers. Salt sheds save municipalities money because the structures ensure that less salt gets into waterways, Waltman said.
“The problem is that when it rains or snows all the runoff from the streets and rooftops gets into our water streams, bringing with it salt, dirt and a lot of other things,” Waltman said. “All that stuff has to be taken out of our drinking water, and that costs a lot of money.”
Reach Virgil Dickson at 973-569-7172 or dickson@northjersey.com.
Reprinted with permission. (c)2008 Herald News (Passaic Co., NJ) Virgil Dickson
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