Town Bank Water Permit to Have Public Hearing

VILLAS- Hurricane Sandy cancelled a state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) public hearing in October to hear comment on awarding a water allocation permit to Lower Township Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) to bring public water to Town Bank and part of Villas.
The water allocation permit would allow about 1,500 new water connections on the east side of Villas plus 2,500 hook ups for Town Bank.
Contaminants found in private wells in Town Bank include seven types of volatile organic compounds including tetrachloroethene and M.T.B.E., a gasoline additive.
The hearing has been rescheduled to Dec. 19 at 4 p.m. at County Freeholder’s meeting room at Crest Haven, 4 Moore Road, Court House.
At a Dec. 6 MUA Board of Commissioner’s meeting, Executive Director Matt Ecker said MUA has a staff report from DEP which recommends approval of the water allocation permit. However, four entities have expressed opposition or sought clarification of the allocation permit: the City of Cape May, American Littoral Society, City of Wildwood and Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA).
Cape May City Manager Bruce MacLeod said the city asked DEP to be a part of the hearing.
“We want to make sure that if DEP considers granting that request that it does not have any adverse impact on our water supply and source and/or our ability to move forward with future needs for the City of Cape May and our neighboring municipalities that we provide bulk water to,” he said.
Cape May sells water to the U.S. Coast Guard Base, West Cape May and Cape May Point. Years ago, the county awarded Cape May half the airport’s water allocation. MacLeod said there has never been a method to transport water from the airport to Cape May.
A letter from DRBA attorney Robert Guzek Jr. to Barbara Ware of DEP’s Division of Water Supply and Geoscience seeks confirmation that a contractual 20 percent reserve allocation for the county/DRBA of 8.6 million gallons per month (MGM) and an additional 3.5 percent for the airport of 1.2 MGM remains unchanged if the permit is issued to the MUA. If not, DRBA would object to the permit, states the letter.
The letter seeks clarification and objects to a reference in a draft report stating the county airport guaranteed reserve equals 1.2 MGM when a 1992 agreement guaranteed 1.5 MGM.
DRBA also sought clarification on peak monthly demand and project annual demand.
The MUA water allocation permit seeks to increase diversion from five existing wells in the Conhansey aquifer and one proposed 269- foot deep well. The application to DEP requests to divert 143 million gallons per month, 1,330 million gallons per year at a maximum rate of 4,250 gallons per minute.
The request represents an increase of 30 million gallons per month or 462 million gallons per year.
The permit would still reserve 25 million gallons for potential future development at the airport and for Cape May.
Ecker said DEP issued construction permits for all the water mains in the Town Bank project.
MUA will be required to create seven test wells to monitor sodium and chloride as part of the water allocation. Ecker said the wells would also monitor the depth of ground water to determine if there is any saltwater intrusion into MUA’s well fields at the county airport and Fishing Creek.
He said the wells would be monitored quarterly.
“If you look at where we’re putting these wells, it’s like a circle all around the airport,” said Ecker.
He said one monitoring well has been drilled on Fay Avenue and two on Drumbed Road. DEP has also requested two wells on Caroline Avenue, one on Beechwood Avenue and one well on Mallow Avenue.
MUA checks its water supply wells quarterly plus an observation well on Roslyn Avenue, said Ecker.
“None of the wells have saltwater intrusion at this point,” he said. “As far as the public water supply goes, Lower Township has never really had a saltwater intrusion problem.”
Ecker said MUA’s Roslyn Avenue wells were “literally in the dunes on the bay” and have not had saltwater intrusion. They are located west of Well One which has been operating since the 1960s.
If saltwater has not moved to those wells at this time, it is predicted MUA has 30 years before the wells would experience saltwater intrusion, he said.
“They (DEP) predict it will get to our well fields around 2050,” said Ecker.
If sodium and chlorides are detected in the well field over an acceptable level, the MUA must come up with an alternate water supply. Ecker said his primary proposal would be to interconnect with Wildwood and New Jersey American Water which draw water from the Kirkwood Aquifer which is plentiful and of high quality.
MUA Commissioners awarded MSP Construction, of Newark, a $3.7 million contract for phase three of the Town Bank water project.
Commissioner Joseph Mento said South State Construction, which handled the second phase of the Town Bank project bid $4.1 million. He said Pioneer Pipe, which handled the first phase of the project, bid $4.5 million. Mento expressed concern the lowest bid was considerably less than the other two contractors.
Ecker said MSP Construction would post a performance bond. He said MSP intended to rent homes in Lower Township for their workers and management.