Avalon Moves to Keep CDF Road

AVALON — In 2013, Avalon received federal and state permits to construct 2,156 linear feet of road from Avalon Boulevard to Macchia Island in the nearby wetlands.
The island played host to a contained disposal facility (CDF) used to store 156,000 cubic yards of dredge soil from the borough’s back-bay waterways.
With a new dredging effort planned to start in 2014, the CDF had to be cleared of the old soil to make space for the new. The road would allow trucks to move the material from the island.
The Road
Army Corps of Engineer’s documents made clear that the road through “tidal marsh and navigable waterways” was temporary. At the conclusion of the project, the road was to be removed, and formal restoration of the wetlands had to be completed by May 2015.
Later the end date for restoration of the wetlands impacted by the road was changed to June 15, 2016.
That road is still in place. Federal and state officials are giving positive signals as they consider the borough’s request to make the road permanent.
The argument is part of an effort to have the island CDF recognized as a regional asset able to be used by other area towns by arrangement with Avalon.
Dredging is a never-ending periodic task for island communities. One of the chief impediments to gaining the environmental permits for a dredging project is having an approved disposal site for the dredged materials.
In 2015, neighboring Stone Harbor had to postpone a dredging project when a deal for an expected disposal site fell through.
Middle Township is currently considering whether to grant permits to a local excavation and mining company that wants to transport and store within the township dredge materials from a planned dredging effort in Ocean City.
For Avalon having a site readily available simplifies the borough’s periodic dredging efforts.
The CDF has also been used to support other dredging efforts. The Army Corps utilized the CDF for materials from dredging efforts in the federal channels.
Keeping the road in place for future use allows Avalon to avoid the expense of removing it and restoring the wetlands each time the CDF needs to be emptied. It sounds reasonable and sensible.
Yet, nothing is that easy when one factors in the myriad of regulations concerning potential harm to the wetlands.
The Mitigation Bank
To keep the road, Avalon must “mitigate” the adverse impact to the environment, and it must do so in proportion to the size of the wetlands area disturbed.
At a Sept. 12 borough council meeting, Business Administrator Scott Wahl explained that the plan was to buy “mitigation credits” from a “mitigation bank.”
Mitigation banks have been around for a few decades, but few in the general public have heard of them.
A wetlands mitigation bank structures a market in credits that can be used to offset adverse impacts caused by projects in wetland areas.
The credits are created through specific approved projects to enhance, preserve or restore wetlands. Those credits can then be “banked” at a mitigation bank and eventually sold to clients who use them to offset “permitted wetlands losses.” 
A permitted loss, in this case, would be due to a road across wetlands to a CDF facility.
Even if it receives agreement from federal and state agencies to permanently maintain the road to Macchia Island, the borough must fulfill its obligations for mitigation.
The roughly two-plus acre mitigation responsibility the borough currently has would probably require about two mitigation credits.
Wahl said the borough has had discussions with Evergreen Environmental, a New Jersey-approved mitigation bank, and would be prepared to purchase the needed credits if it gains formal approval of the effort to make the road permanent.
The Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to the plan, but approval from state Department of Environmental Protection is pending.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.