DEEP THOUGHTS: Prior to the start of the project, the waterway was severely shoaled its entire length, meaning it was not navigable at all tides. (Photo by Ryan Morrill)
Maintenance dredging of Westecunk Creek in Eagleswood Township is underway, after years-long delays and despite an ongoing legal battle.
Construction activity at the east end of Dock Road has prompted a renewed public interest and questions about the status of the project. Dredged material from Westecunk Creek is being hydraulically pumped to the West Creek confined disposal facility, where it is being dewatered. Once dry, it will be utilized to raise the berms of the CDF to accommodate additional material from Parkers Run and Cedar Run channels, N.J. Department of Transportation spokesmen Jim Berry and Steve Schapiro explained.
By and large, Dock Road residents, many of them boat owners, support the dredging, having faced challenges over the years with access to their docks. The creek was last fully dredged in the 1960s and partially dredged in the ’80s.
In the last few years, plans for the DOT’s Office of Maritime Resources to dredge have been stalled by residents and environmental groups who oppose the placement of dredged material in a confined disposal facility for dredged material management on a 26-acre parcel at the end of Dock Road. The state Department of Environmental Protection is the permitting agency.
The plaintiffs in a joint lawsuit, represented by attorney William Potter, are the organizations Environment New Jersey and the New Jersey Conservation Foundation; as well as residents Martha Steinberg, Gamal El-Zoghby, Michael Knight, Ricardo Valdes, Michael and Michelle Pierro, David Fox, Andreas Beutler and Michaela Banck.
Michael Pierro described the state’s handling of the dredged material as “antiquated, inefficient and shortsighted.”
“I’ve always been in favor of dredging the creek,” he said, “but I have always been opposed to how the (state) will manage the dredge spoils.” (The state prefers the word “material” to “spoils.”) The township committee, likewise, takes the position of supporting the dredging but opposing the location of the CDF.
Dock Road is about 3 miles long and 25 feet wide with not much shoulder and, in most sections, a 40-mile-an-hour speed limit, Pierro noted.
“People go for walks, jog, bike and walk their pets on this road,” he said. “Picture thousands of dump trucks barreling in and out of Dock Road with those dredge spoils.”
Pierro feels there must be “a more environmentally friendly and efficient manner” in which to deal with the dredged material. “They could be used in thin layer placement on the meadows to help with sea level rise and storm surge,” he suggested. “They could be used to re-create lost island habitat in the bay; and they could be used to reestablish eroding estuary coastlines.” Such measures would benefit the ecosystem, enhance coastal resiliency, and “spare our neighborhood a blight.”
The suit, currently hung up in appellate court, awaits an outcome. Potter said an oral argument on Monday, Nov. 8 was “as energetic as I’ve ever experienced,” but the three-judge panel reserved decision. A separate appeal, of the DEP’s approval of the DOT’s modifications to the original permit, is in an early stage. Potter, et al. have also filed an action in federal court (though it’s currently on the inactive list) against the Army Corps of Engineers for failure to meet its own National Environmental Policy Act compliance and environmental impact statement requirements.
The project had been held up with rolling 90-day stays of implementation, Potter explained, but the last one expired in March, and the state appears to have moved forward from there.
According to the DOT, the goal is for Phase I dredging of Westecunk Creek to be complete by the end of 2021. Phase 2 dredging of Parkers Run and Cedar Run channels is intended to start in July 2022 and run until the end of 2022.
Prior to the start of the project, “Westecunk Creek, along with Parkers Run and Cedar Run channels, were severely shoaled for their entire length, meaning they were not navigable at all tides,” the spokesmen explained in an email Tuesday afternoon.
The site was previously used for the 1983 dredging operation, when the property was privately owned. Since then, the parcel had reverted to a natural area. The DOT bought it in 2006.
“The CDF has been prepared to receive dredged material and is now being used to dewater dredged material from Westecunk Creek using geosynthetic bags to facilitate rapid dewatering,” according to Berry and Schapiro.
Dredging will stop on Dec. 3 and will begin again on or about July 1, 2022, when the permit window opens, they noted. Site work may take place in the interim.
— Victoria Ford
