newjerseynewsroom.com

Fears tons of contaminated sediment could be dumped in South Jersey

The state attorney general’s office has filed an appeal an appeal in federal court attempting to overturn lower court rulings that would allow the deepening of the Delaware River by the Army Corps of Engineers to move forward despite what the state argues is a lack of updated environmental impact studies.

"We remain steadfast in our belief that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must be compelled to openly and thoroughly assess the impacts that deepening the shipping channel would have on the ecology of the river, including impacts to South Jersey's wetlands," state Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin said Friday. "It is irresponsible for the Army Corps to move ahead with this project without addressing New Jersey's concerns and without completely updating testing for contaminants."

New Jersey has been locked in legal battles with the Corps of Engineers over its plan to deepen the river’s 102-mile shipping channel from Delaware Bay to north of Camden in an attempt to lure larger containership to the port of Philadelphia.

If the project moves ahead, millions of tons of sediments would be dumped in confined disposal facilities along ecologically sensitive creeks and wetlands in Gloucester and Salem counties

The appeal, filed in the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, seeks to overturn rulings by U.S. District Court judges in New Jersey and Delaware who dismissed New Jersey's demand for new studies. The Corps of Engineers’ Philadelphia District is responsible for planning and implementing the project.

New Jersey argues the Corps of Engineers violated conditions of the National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, and Coastal Zone Management Act by failing to perform new environmental impact analyses that would address changes in the deepening project and provide more and complete testing of contaminants in river sediments. The state argues that the majority of the Corps of Engineers’ environmental analyses were done in 1997, with limited updates.

DEP testing shows river sediments contain elevated levels of PCBs, metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other contaminants.

The state's appeal notes that the Corps of Engineers relied on limited and outdated data, largely of sediment samples taken from routine maintenance dredging, and did not adequately sample sediments from channel bends and side banks, areas that are likely to be the most contaminated.

In fact, the state argues, the Corps of Engineers failed to review the limited samples it did have from these areas even though the DEP pointed out this deficiency and questioned the reasonableness of relying on sampling of sediments from routine maintenance dredging.

The state also argues that the DEP reviewed Corps of Engineers’ testing of effluent discharged from sediments the Corps placed last year at the Killcohook Confined Disposal Facility in Salem County as part of the first phase of the deepening project, a 12-mile stretch in Delaware waters. The DEP states the review found elevated levels of selenium, copper, mercury, aluminum and cyanide that could affect surface water quality in the area, located near a federal wildlife refuge.

"Simply put, the Army Corps needs to start using sound science and being forthright with the state and the public about its findings," Martin said. "The residents of New Jersey and the Delaware River deserve nothing less."

—TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM