BURLEIGH — Indian Trail’s two best friends, Ralph and Lois Shuman aren’t happy with Middle Township’s response to their concerns over a gravel pit application currently before the zoning board, so they decided to get other local officials involved.
The couple mailed a letter to state, county and local officials – including mayors throughout the county – as well as representatives from environmental groups and media outlets regarding the 100-acre gravel pit they say will cost the county 88 million gallons of water to evaporation a year.
Local mining company Albrecht and Heun, and its subsidiary Future Mining Inc., want to have a recycling facility and retail store along with the gravel pit on their 260-acre Indian Trail site.
In their letter, the Shumans assert the county is in a water crisis and warns that with global warming and saltwater intrusion, officials will be looking for ways to fix this problem in 35 years if the Indian Trail project is approved.
Environ, the Shuman’s consultants, said Future Mining’s environmental impact statement (EIS) is inadequate.
“The EIS does not address the proposed mining operation nor address potential environmental impacts from the mining operations,” company representatives wrote. “It only addresses the proposed recycling operations.”
Included with the letter, the couple attached two studies from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) as well as letters from the New Jersey Audubon Society and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which strengthen their assertions and oppose the project.
The USGS studies showed that continued development in the county has caused saltwater intrusion into area wells and indicated the best place to dig new wells would be on the spine of the county, on which the Indian Trail site lies.
“During 1960 – 1990, saltwater intrusion forced the abandonment of at least 10 public-supply wells, three industrial-supply wells and more than 100 domestic-supply wells in Cape May County,” Pierre Lacombe wrote in a USGS Water-Resources report.
“Actual or imminent ground-water contamination caused by land-use practices and human activities has forced the closure of at least six shallow public-supply wells and many domestic-supply wells.”
The Shumans have suggested that ground water could be contaminated by an unlined dump across the street from the site, which could spoil the county’s best potential wells.
The Audubon Society opposes the application for different reasons.
The group says the site’s forested areas support numerous species of migratory birds as well as state threatened species.
“To protect these valuable resources that belong to all citizens of New Jersey as well as the local community, I urge the members of the zoning board to decline site plan approval,” Audubon Coordinator Cristina Frank wrote.
Howard J. Schlegel, of the Fish and Wildlife Service, a branch of the U.S. Department of the Interior, had similar reservations.
The service owns a large tract of land immediately adjacent to the proposed mining site.
“The potential impacts of riparian or in-stream sand and gravel mining can be generally characterized as physical/fouling effects including channel instability, erosion and deposition, deleterious effects on aquatic habitat and riparian ecology, and even property boundary changes,” he wrote to the Middle Township Zoning Board in June of last year.
The Shumans hope these letters will gain them support among municipal leaders throughout the county.
“Hopefully the mayors and other leaders in the county will put pressure on Middle Township to really look into the problems a project like this could do to the water supply for the entire county,” Ralph Shuman said. “It’s something everyone in the county should be worried about.”
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com
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