Resident Questions to NJ21st about the DEP Sewage Violations

We’ve had some questions from residents on our articles in connection to the DEP Sewage Violations.

This will be a running document – as questions come in, this document will be updated..

Is the Township Correcting the issues the DEP cited the Sewage Plant on?

I think so… they appear to be correcting these issues now that the DEP has gotten involved and is actively monitoring the situation. In the RFB bidders asked specifically:

“There are numerous NJPDES and LSI permit violations resulting in fines. Has the town implemented or planned any measures to address the violations?”

The township responded to the Bidders question:

“The Township’s Waste Water Treatment Director, Alan Kennedy, has worked closely with NJDEP since being hired. All violations have had corrective measures enacted. Permit violations are now very uncommon as a result of this coordination.
See FTP Site DR1-27 for more information”

Access to the FTP, from what I understand is no longer available but as stated in the article published today we should be getting full record of everything in 7 business days.

Also on the DEP site there is some evidence that a few items are resolved while others are pending.

How much is this going to cost the town?

Based on what I reviewed so far – about 38k – however I am not sure that is the full amount of the fines – that’s what’s available through a search on the DEP site. I think that’s about right though – once we get the documents from the DEP we should know more.  There are additional costs to the catch-up (a portion of that reflected in the bid documents we covered earlier this year) for materials, trainings etc.

Are the chemical and E.Coli a huge problem?

I have no idea – I know that the snapshot the DEP referenced exceeded their limit. I have to imagine that’s corrected by now but again I am going to wait on the documents from the NJDEP.  It was -objectively-a public health and property risk.  Whether it is now, at this time I don’t know and I have no information about potential long term consequences.

Why didn’t you just ask the Town for the Document?

The OPRA Custodian is already dealing with two heavy requests that I made on the bond and flooding and she shouldn’t be punished for extra work every time we can’t find important information.

Did the Town let anyone know about this?

I can’t find any record of a detailed statement – there are vague references to a DEP settlement agreement in prior agendas (that we wrote about). I went to the meeting to ask about it – but was more focused on who was paying the fine and why. At that meeting the township did not expand to explain what happened. In my email to the Mayor and Council I requested a documented record of communication.

Who is responsible for this?

That’s up to residents to decide. The current Plant Admin is new and was there for about a year where some of this stuff was happening which dates back to 2022 from what I can tell. DeBlock was there for the remainder of the time period these citation cover. The Mayor and Town Administrator have been in place since 2019.

We created a section for the Sewage Plant DEP issues on our wiki

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