DEP Permits, FEMA Submissions and Berkeley Heights- What an OPRA Request Tells Us

Continuing Fact Check of the Township’s Flood Response Narrative

DEP Permits

On 08/31/2025 we drilled down on the Township’s “our hands are tied” narrative in connection to clearing streams and rivers and demonstrated how other townships have applied and are doing the work many Berkeley Residents are asking their Township to do. We also highlighted a resident’s comments challenging Councilwoman Poage on her campaign materials and their reference to flooding.

Our OPRA request asked for:

All permit applications submitted to or received from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) related to stream, brook, or river clearing/desnagging (including debris removal, sediment removal, or channel cleaning) under the Stream Cleaning Act, Flood Hazard Area General Permit 1, or Permit-by-Rule, from January 1, 2020 through the present and determination/response letters.

We received a response back from the Township on 09/23/2025:

In response to your OPRA request, enclosed below, I have reached out to Engineering, OEM, and DPW and they do not have any such records. I have also done a search through the DEP records in my office, but have not been able to locate any such records.

The absence of applications appears to undercut the Township’s own claim that DEP rules tied its hands. Whether this lapse played a role in the failure to secure outside aid is unclear, but it leaves residents with higher costs and more questions.

Storm Bond

We also received the documents we requested from the Township in connection with the FEMA grant.

Our initial focus centered on the $3.5 million bond, specifically:

• The lack of timely documentation to support the bond
• The lack of Zoom access to the meetings connected to the bond
• The absence of language referring to the storm in the bond ordinance
• Questions about why some projects that appeared in better shape were selected over areas in far worse condition – many of which were affected in some capacity by the storm.

After the Township announced that the FEMA threshold was not met, I became curious about the Township’s submissions and wanted to fact-check the circumstances surrounding the refusal, so I submitted an OPRA request.

The main item of interest was the spreadsheet we received showing the following:

• $5.17 million approved by State QA/QC
• $712,879 in new submissions pending review
• $226,953 listed as rejected

It seems the threshold determination was made before the pending claims were processed.

We then compared the spreadsheet the township provided most recently against the Township Storm Damage Assessment (TSDA) they indicated as being connected to the 3.5 million dollar bond. We found that only 8 Streets on this list show up on the TSDA that the township indicated would be covered by the bond.

Resident Feedback

One resident reached out to us on the nature of the work being done in their neighborhood:

“There was work done on Monday by Armstrong Excavating and Demolition on the Orion Road culvert on the west side of the street. The July storm had washed away the rocks that were placed there as part of previous work. The rocks that were washed away can be seen in the stream along with some other large boulders. This “repair” doesn’t make sense as the next big storm will result in more rocks in the stream impeding water flow. And on the east side of the street, the debris that the elderly resident cleared from the bank of the stream along her yard remains untouched.”

“These are the pictures that show the aftermath of the that rain storm. See all those rocks on the side that got washed away.”

“These are after they finished the work. Two pictures show all the rocks that got washed into the stream.”

“This is the other side of the road showing the debris by the culvert.”

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