Might as well post these up as they happen. I have a feeling most of you surf guys will get screwed.
Judge denies bid to delay beach project
STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS ?€? November 21, 2008
TRENTON ?€” A federal judge on Thursday rejected a request by the Jersey Shore chapter of the Surfrider Foundation seeking to delay a $9.3 million beach replenishment project in Long Branch until the sand retrieved from the ocean floor could be tested for hazardous substances.
U.S. District Judge Mary L. Cooper, sitting in Trenton, denied Surfrider's motion for a preliminary injunction even as the Army Corps of Engineers began site preparation work for the project which was delayed for years while Long Branch's Congressional delegation tried to cobble together funding from the Bush administration.
"We will go on with the case, but Surfrider Foundation did not prevail today," wrote John Weber, Northeast regional manager for the group, in an e-mail. Surfrider had sought a preliminary injunction to block the project until the Army Corps would test the sand, and Weber said attorneys arguing the case for the government made technical points and did not center on issues related to the safety or health-worthiness of the dredged material.
"We find it perplexing that the government will probably spend more money paying lawyers to fight our request than it would spent to simply perform the tests we seek," Weber said.
Lawyers James Sullivan and Michael Hall, arguing for Surfrider, made comparisons to a replenishment project in Surf City, in which the dredged material brought up old munitions, requiring a $17 million project to rid the beach of the hazards.
Weber said Surfrider does not believe that will happen in Long Branch ?€” and the dredges will be fitted with baskets to prevent that ?€” but that the Surf City incident illustrates the Army Corps cannot know what is in the material, even if it carefully evaluates it in advance.
Rep. Frank J. Pallone Jr., D-N.J., has said the project is expected to take three months to complete and will replenish the beaches, beginning at Cedar Avenue and then heading north toward Howland Avenue.
The work began despite the filing of a lawsuit two weeks ago by the Surfrider Foundation to delay the replenishment until the sand, which will be pumped from the ocean floor near Sandy Hook and transported to Long Branch, could be tested for contaminants. The sand is located near several sources of pollution and wastewater, including outfall from New York Harbor.
The pumping is expected to begin Dec. 1 and take about 45 days, ending on or about March 14, at a cost of $9.3 million, including $5.3 million from the federal government. The state Department of Environmental Protection is paying $1.06 million for the experimental design to help keep surfers surfing and to make the beach safer, officials said.
Surfrider wanted the Army Corps of Engineers to do a chemical study of sand that it is to dredge from an area near Sandy Hook, which is adjacent to a section where shellfishing is prohibited because of high levels of fecal coliform.
"It is not a matter of holding back progress" said Surfrider's William P. Rosenblatt, a former mayor of Loch Arbour, who added fellow executives in Deal and Allenhurst expressed a concern in having the sand tested years ago. "This is an important public safety issue."
Rosenblatt said authorities are relying on a nearly 20-year-old environmental impact statement for the Long Branch project and that there has not been a chemical study performed on the sand.
"To view sand as an infinite public resource, we know that is not the case," said Rosenblatt. "Ultimately, we might need to put sand on beaches where there are" emergent issues.
The city, which bonded for its share of the project's cost several years ago, paid about $740,000, said city Business Administrator Howard H. Woolley Jr. However, the DEP's Benjamin Keiser said the city's cost could be as low as $729,000. Final figures will be available at the conclusion of the project, Woolley said.
Judge denies bid to delay beach project
Reply With Quote