Arter & Adams Demand Answers from DEP on Riverfront Dredge Spoil Sites

           Mount Holly, October 6, 2009 – While blasting incumbent Trenton politicians Herb Conaway and Jack Conners for their now legendary penchant for inaction on important issues affecting their constituents, GOP Assembly challengers Leah Arter and Harry Adams today demanded that the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) make public the official list of local sites slated to receive nearly one million cubic yards of dredge material generated from Delaware River dredging slated to be performed by the Army Corps of Engineers with federal stimulus funding for shovel-ready projects.          

           Back in April 2008, the NJDEP held a meeting at the Burlington County Eco-Complex and publicly announced seven “viable sites” where dredge material could be dumped, of which at least three would be chosen as dredge material recipients.  They included Newbold Island, Burlington Island, West Avenue in everly/Delanco, Hawk Island, Inman Avenue in Cinnaminson, Palmyra Cove and Delair in Pennsauken.                                                                                                                             “The people who proudly call the riverfront communities of Burlington County home deserve immediate and specific answers about whether their community is on the list and what that means for their local environment and quality of life,” said Arter, a small business owners and former Beverly City Councilwoman.  “The DEP position that dredge material at Palmyra Cove must be removed now to make room for new material that will be created by the federal stimulus project begs the question what other sites will be used and when.  We want answers and we want them now.”          

            Adams said the lack of involvement by Conaway and Conners is stunning, even by their historically low standards.           

           “Herb and Jack are content to be back-bencher Assemblyman and rubber stamp Jon Corzine’s failed tax, spend and borrow agenda, but they clearly aren’t willing to do the hard work it requires to be a true representative of the people,” said Adams, a heavy equipment operator for JCP&L and former Westampton Township Committeeman. “This is their administration.  This is their DEP.  Why they have failed to provide answers to the people who live in these communities shows how detached they are from the concerns of everyday folks who call the Burlington County riverfront home.  Since they won’t demand answers, we will.” 

          Arter and Adams said the potential for increased heavy truck traffic rumbling through local roads to carry dredge spoils to sites up and down the riverfront was a frightening prospect for people already dealing with a noisy light rail train.