Burzichelli, Sweeney: Court Decision Highlights Need for New NJ/DE Border Agreement

U.S. SUPREME COURT DECISION HIGHLIGHTS NEED
FOR UPDATED NJ/DELAWARE BORDER PACT

(Paulsboro) - Assemblyman John Burzichelli and Senator Stephen M. Sweeney today said the divided United States Supreme Court decision upholding Delaware's combination of a 1682 map-making decision with its own Coastal Zone Act to block an economic development project in New Jersey underscores the need for the two states to revisit the century-old compact that governs land-use along the Garden State side of the Delaware River.

In a 6-2 decision, the Court said Delaware has the right to block construction of a pier in Logan Township, Gloucester County, since the state's colonial boundary gives it jurisdiction over the entire river floor.

"The Supreme Court's divided decision shows that an agreement New Jersey and Delaware struck at a time when much of our modern world would be considered science fiction is showing signs of age" said Burzichelli (D-Gloucester). "Now that the Court has rendered its decision, officials from Delaware and New Jersey need to come together to produce a new, modern agreement between our two states."

According to the colonial-era boundary between the states, Delaware's border with New Jersey is marked at the low-tide marker on the eastern side of the Delaware River in Salem County. A 1905 compact between the states gives New Jersey the express rights to construct "conveyances" on its side of the river, even if it extends across the low-tide line.

The Supreme Court upheld that agreement in 1935; in today's decision, the court said that while Delaware could not block an "ordinary project" from construction, the proposed LNG pier "goes well beyond the ordinary."

"We should not be making 21st Century decisions based on a 103-year-old agreement based in-turn on a three-century-old map," said Sweeney (D-Gloucester). "Let's not push this issue off for yet another century."

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