LEBANON TWP. – A quarry upstream from the Spruce Run Reservoir and
State Park Recreation Area has discharged a large quantity of sediment into the
the drinking and recreational water source.
Raritan
Headwaters Association policy director, Bill Kibler took a photo of
the sediment clouding the Spruce Run Creek off Van Syckles Road near the border
of Lebanon and Clinton Townships, at the mouth of the reservoir.
According to
Kibler, at some point over the weekend of Saturday, July 29, and Sunday, July
30, a large amount of stone dust sludge was apparently discharged from the Eastern Concrete
Materials, Inc. Glen Gardner Quarryinto the Spruce Run.
Kibler saids
that the discharge affects 1.5 to 2 miles of the Spruce Run upstream from the
reservoir and that the sediment is knee deep in places. This is not only
harmful to fish, frogs and salamanders, but also the aquatic insects they eat.
The Spruce Run is classified by the state as a C1 trout production quality
stream, so it’s an important habitat.
Dead fish and
frogs have been found, and Kibler has been working with the NJ Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP) to assess the full impact on
aquatic life in the stream.
Lawrence
Hajna, press officer for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection,
said that Eastern Concrete Materials, operating the quarry in Glen Gardner,
were de-watering a basin in anticpation of heavy rainfall over the weekend of
July 29-30 when the staff “became aware of turbidity (cloudiness, haziness)
conditions in the receiving stream, Spruce Run Creek.”
“The Division
of Fish and Wildlife and Hunterdon Health Department responded on Sunday, and
the concern wa for the impact on fish and wildlife from the silt, or sand
fines, the particles discharged inadvertently into the streams which could
disrupt the ecology of the stream,” Hajna said.
Hajna said the
silt can bury the food they need, such as macro-invertebrates that live in the
water.
He said that
the DEP’s Bureau of Water Compliance Enforcement issued a field notice of
violation for an unpermitted discharge, and a contractor had installed a silt
containment boom at the point of entrance to the reservoir
to keep the silt out of the reservoir. The plan is for installation of a series
of silt containment barriers to facilitate collection.
”As you’d
expect, the silt was thickest to the discharge point, and becomes less so as
you move further downstream,” Hanja said. “The impacted areas were 600-800
yards downstream and a 1.7 mile stretch of the creek was impacted.
He said that
the reservoir’s water utility managemet said there was no impact on the water
supply.
The quarry is
adjacent to the Hagedorn Preserve and the former Hagedorn Geriatric Facility in
Lebanon Township, according to the RHA. A resident nearthe creek upstream, Todd
Henderson, shot video of the discharged sediment making
its way down the creek and posted it on his Facebook page.
Ref: http://www.newjerseyhills.com/hunterdon_review/news/glen-gardner-quarry-discharges-sediment-into-spruce-run-reservoir/article_e8a8cb4a-b44d-54f9-9d0f-62239a62c388.html
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