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State hits Hackensack with 3 violations
(by Mark J. Bonamo - March 12, 2008)
Sitting in his Main Street office in downtown Hackensack, Capt. Bill Sheehan was not amused. Sheehan, who in his role at the Hackensack Riverkeeper helps to watch over the health of the river that gives the city its name, had something in his hand that made him sick.
Sheehan was reading a copy of the March 6 notice of violation handed down by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to the City of Hackensack for three violations of the state Water Pollution Control Act. This act is designed to curtail nonpoint source pollution, a major environmental problem affecting New Jersey’s waterways. Violators of the regulations of the state statute are subject to penalties of up to $50,000 per day per offense. But what really offended Sheehan could be summed up in one word: timing.
“This is terrible environmental policy, but it’s also terrible economic policy,” he said. “With the current fiscal environment in New Jersey, I have no idea why the City of Hackensack would risk these types of fines now. It’s just not good fiscal policy.”
At a time when the City of Hackensack is facing the same severe budget constraints that are plaguing the state at large, the municipal authorities may be forced to pay strict penalties in order to comply with state water pollution control regulations. And with the NJDEP penalty clock ticking as of March 6, time is no longer on the city’s side.
The point of fighting nonpoint source pollution
In 2004, the NJDEP began the Municipal Stormwater Regulation Program (MSRP) in an attempt to address the impacts of stormwater-borne pollution on New Jersey’s waterways, including the Hackensack River. Now in the second phase of the program, Sheehan noted that enforcement of the regulation and rules of the program have significantly increased in order to more forcefully combat nonpoint source pollution.
“Nonpoint source pollution is a serious problem because all of the rivers in New Jersey are plateaued at a certain level of environmental recovery,” he said. “The only way we’ll be able to get to the next level of cleanliness where the rivers are all fishable and swimable is by attacking this problem that creates so much of the pollution that comes into them.”
“The term nonpoint source pollution means that it’s coming from everywhere,” Sheehan explained. “It’s everything from the Styrofoam cup that someone tosses out their car window that winds up going through a storm drain, to petroleum-based and other automobile-related products runoff, to fertilizer from landscaping that winds up in the rivers.”
The pervasive nature of the nonpoint source pollution program, combined with stricter enforcement of the Municipal Stormwater Regulation Program, has led to marked increases in compliance with the Municipal Stormwater Management Plans (SMP) by New Jersey’s 566 separate municipalities. According to statistics provided by the NJDEP, in 2004-2005, 56 percent of the state’s municipalities had adopted the SMP. By 2006-2007, that number had shot up to 95 percent, with only 5 percent of all state municipalities in noncompliance with SMP adoption.
During the same time frame, the number of storm sewer catch basins that have been inspected and cleaned statewide went up from nearly 104,000 to over 245,000. Meanwhile, the amount of trash removed from the state’s storm sewers as a result of the cleaning program shot up from 6,500 tons to over 126,000 tons. Penalty assessments also increased dramatically, with the NJDEP issuing one penalty in 2005 for $20,000 and 48 penalties in 2007 for $524,000.
The MSRP also includes an education component that involves the distribution of an informational brochure meant to teach the public about stormwater and nonpoint source pollution. In 2004/2005, 57 percent of municipalities distributed educational brochures to all residents. By 2006/2007, 91 percent of Garden State municipalities gave out the brochures.
Three strikes against Hackensack
Despite the general statewide trend towards compliance, greater enforcement and education about the MSRP and the deleterious effects of stormwater and nonpoint source pollution, the City of Hackensack was found in violation of three important regulations of the program.
The descriptions of noncompliance listed on the notice of violations are as follows:
- Failure to provide for the duplication and annual mailing to all residents and businesses of the informational brochure provided by the NJDEP. This violation must be remediated within 90 calendar days from March 6.
- Failure to inspect and clean all catch basins in accordance with NJDEP regulations. This violation must be remediated within 90 calendar days.
- Failure to construct a permanent structure for the storage of salt and deicing materials by April 1, 2007. Due to the fact that the City of Hackensack has been in violation of this regulation for close to a year, the city has within 30 calendar days to remediate this violation.
The City of Hackensack was given a notice of violation by the state Department of Environmental Protection for three separate water pollution control offenses, including one for failure to clean and inspect all city catch basins such as this one.
Lo Iacono addresses the city’s next steps
Phone calls to Jesse D’Amore, superintendent of the Hackensack Department of Public Works, were not returned by press time. However, in an interview with Hackensack Chronicle, City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono pointed to Hackensack’s attempts to comply with NJDEP water pollution control regulations.
“We are in the process of responding to this now,” he said. “We will satisfy the educational brochure requirement by June, and we will also disseminate information on these issues to the public at a table at the city’s Fourth of July celebration.”
Regarding the catch basin issue, Lo Iacono indicated that the city will step up its catch basin inspections and has divided the city up into sections in order to facilitate the efforts of the Hackensack DPW and recycling division in their efforts to comply with the NJDEP regulations.
In terms of the salt storage issue, Lo Iacono gave a direct response that ties into the city’s current fiscal realities.
“Quite frankly, what we’re trying to do here is save money,” he said, noting that the city has been trying to work with the Bergen County government to construct a joint salt storage shed to be located in the area of Hackensack’s salt storage area on East Broadway. “One reason why we haven’t built a new salt storage facility is because we are hoping to do it jointly with the county. It’s a natural thing to do.”
Lo Iacono was confident that the city would be able to remediate its violations in time and be in full compliance with the NJDEP regulations within the designated time limits for each violation.
“I’m not worried about this,” he said. “The state gets a little aggressive about these things once in a while. We’re not going to get fined.”
Pay now, or pay later
Back in his Main Street office, Sheehan did not seem very assured by Lo Iacono’s assertions.
“This is serious business,” he said. “Every town that was forced to pay a penalty because of noncompliance would have been better off if they had spent that money on compliance. Now they have to pay a fine to the NJDEP, and that doesn’t let them off the hook in terms of compliance.”
“Nobody wants to fine the City of Hackensack $50,000 a day,” Sheehan continued. “But with the fiscal problems that the state has, and with the bare bones budget that Gov. Corzine is putting through, I’ve got a feeling that they are going to be looking to fill some of the budget gaps with these penalties. The days of being able to go in and negotiate a $50,000 penalty down to $5,000 may be coming to an end.”
For his part, Sheehan is ready to go to work to ensure that the days ahead go better for the city in which his non-profit environmental organization is based.
“I hope that this is an eye-opener for the city,” he said. “We’re here in Hackensack, and we want to be part of what goes on here. I want to work with the City of Hackensack to ensure that an embarrassment like this does not happen again.”
E-mail: bonamo@northjersey.com
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