{"id":7847,"date":"2016-03-15T01:40:26","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T05:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=7847"},"modified":"2016-03-15T01:43:44","modified_gmt":"2016-03-15T05:43:44","slug":"pending-bill-would-declare-barnegat-bay-impaired-set-pollution-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2016\/03\/pending-bill-would-declare-barnegat-bay-impaired-set-pollution-limits\/","title":{"rendered":"Pending Bill Would Declare Barnegat Bay Impaired, Set Pollution Limits"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Water<\/a>

Water flows into Barnegat Bay from a pump at Lyman Avenue in Mantoloking. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

A bill that would begin an anti-pollution program in Barnegat Bay long sought by environmentalists passed the state General Assembly Monday with strong bipartisan support, though previous attempts to establish what is known as a Total Maximum Daily Load, or TMDL, have never been successful.<\/p>\n

The TMDL program is part of the federal Clean Water Act, and allows states to receive federal funding toward creating a scientifically-sound plan to identify how much pollution, runoff and other materials are entering a waterway, then calculating the maximum amount of pollution the waterway can handle and still support its assigned uses. Establishing such a plan also requires that both governmental agencies and private sector partners develop plans to reduce pollution, including both mandated and voluntary policies.<\/p>\n

While put into place in numerous other states, including California and Texas, New Jersey has struggled to mandate\u00a0a TMDL for Barnegat Bay for years, despite calls from environmentalists to do so. The state\u2019s precarious financial condition, as well as the reluctance of local government agencies, such as counties and municipalities, to raise property taxes to support cleanup efforts, have left the question of funding largely in the air.<\/p>\n

The bill<\/a> passed by the Assembly this week, sponsored by Assemblyman Jack McKeon (D-Essex) \u2013 who owns an oceanfront seasonal home in Brick \u2013 does not mention funding sources, instead leaving implementation in the hands of the state Department of Environmental Protection to make recommendations to the legislature at a future time.<\/p>\n

Funding mechanisms to improve the quality of the bay have previously proven controversial. The Ocean County freeholders vehemently opposed a previous bill that would have had the county establish a stormwater basin utility to retrofit basins with materials that would have made the bay cleaner and reduce runoff. The funding for the utility would have likely been drawn from assessments on county homeowners, which the officials decried as a new tax imposed only on Ocean County residents to improve what they viewed as a state resource.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I fully share the sponsors\u2019 concerns about Barnegat Bay, now is not the time to increase the tax burden,\u201d Gov. Chris Christie wrote in his 2011 veto of the bill.<\/p>\n

\"Sedge<\/a>

Sedge islands behind Island Beach State Park in Barnegat Bay. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Establishing a TMDL would open the state up to some federal funding for the program, which could allay some funding fears in a state whose residents\u00a0already carry the highest property tax burdens in the nation. The bill\u2019s passage drew instant praise from the state chapter of the Sierra Club, one of the groups that has been long in favor of declaring the bay impaired.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime is running out on Barnegat Bay and we need to act immediately,\u201d Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel said in a statement, citing an increase in stinging sea nettle jellyfish and pollutants in the bay in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re turning Barnegat Bay into New Jersey\u2019s biggest stormwater retention basin,\u201d Tittel said. \u201cThe biggest source of pollution we face is non-point pollution and we should be retrofitting our stormwater basins to protect our waterways.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill would require passage in the state Senate and Christie\u2019s signature \u2013 or a legislative override of a potential veto \u2013 to become law. If the bill were to be enacted, studies would begin immediately and the TMDL would be set within two years.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill that would begin an anti-pollution program in Barnegat Bay long sought by environmentalists passed the state General Assembly Monday with strong bipartisan support, though previous attempts to establish what is known as a Total Maximum Daily Load, or TMDL, have never been successful. The TMDL program is part of the federal Clean Water […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[95,24,1997,1998],"class_list":["post-7847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shore-environment","tag-barnegat-bay","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-tmdl","tag-total-maximum-daily-load"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-2015-09-10-at-1.18.32-AM.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-22z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}