Chronic flooding on the Delaware which shut down Trenton underscores the need for stronger regullations to protect wetlands and floodplains.
Posted on GSENVIRonet.com
Remember: July 15, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Brookside Park and River clean up.
e-mail thirdriverbank@yahoo.com if questions.
Asbury Park Press, Jul. 2, 2006
OP-ED: STREAM ENCROACHMENT LIMITS CAN PREVENT FLOODING
By Jeff Tittel
More than a year since the last major flood on the Delaware River,
nothing has been done to help protect people and property from more
flooding. As the waters from last week's floods start to recede, it is
time to look at why we keep having more floods with less rain.
The reason is the failure of government to help prevent flooding or
mitigate its damage. We are tired of task force after task force and
study after study. It is time to hold those people responsible who
continue to allow this to happen.
There have been flood studies since 1972. In 2005, we again wasted
nine months with a task force study and report instead of working on
the problem. It is absurd to keep having these studies when we still
have not implemented any of the recommendations from the 1984 task
force study.
While we were having meetings, we could have been passing stream
buffer regulations. While we were having studies, we could have
stopped new developments in flood plains. While we were writing
papers, we could have been limiting the development of more pavement,
which is causing flooding. We are not going to allow elected officials
to hide behind more paperwork. We want a real comprehensive solution
to flooding on the Delaware.
In October 2002, state Department of Environmental Protection staff
responded to chronic statewide flooding, degraded water quality and
serious weaknesses in the permit program by developing recommendations
to strengthen the permit program. Now would be a good time for them to
finally take action.
Under what is commonly known as the stream encroachment permit
program, the DEP regulates development proposed along stream corridors
and within flood hazard areas. This oversight is an important tool to
avoid and minimize flooding, erosion, sedimentation and adverse water
quality impacts.
Other recommendations:
Expand stream buffers. This would protect thousands of miles of
streams, enhance water quality, allow for aquifer recharge, provide
open space and protect people's homes from flooding. The DEP should
repropose the rule to make the buffers larger, from 25-50 feet wide to
at least 75-100 feet wide in areas that do not qualify for the 300-
foot buffer around Category One streams.
Limit development in flood plains. This building creates more flooding
and puts more people's lives and properties at risk. The increase in
impervious cover eliminates recharge areas. Therefore, stricter limits
on new development in flood plains should be immediately imposed.
Eliminate loopholes that destroy headwaters of sensitive streams. Most
prevalent is the loophole where the state does not have jurisdiction
to protect stream drainages smaller than 50 acres. However, it is just
these drainage areas that are the most sensitive and crucial to
protecting water quality. Once you lose the high-quality waters at the
headwaters, the rest of the stream suffers.
Implement stricter protections for natural stream corridor vegetation.
These corridors provide important functions for filtering pollution
before it reaches the stream and preventing flooding by absorbing more
waters. The current practice of mowing the corridor allows runoff to
rush into the waters, carrying pollutants from roads and fields and
increasing downstream flooding.
Create new maps of flood-hazard areas. Many of the maps are 30 years
old. Some parts of the state do not have maps. Many more people are
living in flood-prone areas because these maps are so out of date.
Without knowledge of where these areas are, we are allowing more
development and putting more people in harm's way.
Implement Category One anti-degradation requirements as part of the
new rules. The same regulations for crossing streams and allowing for
new development should not apply to the state's most sensitive
environmental areas, where stronger standards are warranted.
Over the last 10 years, 99.7 percent of all permits approved by the
DEP are wetlands, stream encroachment, waterfront development and
others that impact flooding. The recommendations for strengthening the
stream encroachment permit program are greatly needed to avoid
degradation and destruction from sprawl.
The government needs to take real regulatory action to prevent the
continuous flooding of the Delaware River. As long as we keep allowing
upstream development in northern New Jersey and the Poconos, the
people in Trenton are going to have to buy snorkels.
Jeff Tittel is director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.
Copyright 2006 Asbury Park Press.
