And with the stroke of a pen the case is closed.
“….remediation of this site was consistent with DEP regulations. DEP considers the remediation case to be closed.”
At the Upper Saddle River council meeting on Thursday May 2, 2019, where mystery surrounds the dealings of the council, and the residents are kept in the dark on so many matters, a question by a resident on the continual, daily mud flows into the waterways resulted in revelation that a letter had arrived – that very day – to the mayors of Upper Saddle River and Mahwah from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection regarding the ongoing situation.
It makes interesting reading. According to the DEP following a significant rain incident in April 16, 2018 that dumped “4 inches of rain in 15 hours” that overwhelmed the soil erosion and sedimentary basins Toll Brothers lowered the water (i.e. dumped into the Pleasant Brook) to prevent breaching of dams (in accordance to their construction permit!) and by April 26, 2018 measures were in place to control this. As of May 3 2018 it was determined by DEP that soil erosion and sediment control was effectively in place and that the allegations of mud pumping were “unfounded”.
“All present were satisfied with the existing control measures in place.”
Does this look like effective sediment control?
Photographic evidence taken on May 24, 2018 – some 21 days after DEP were satisfied with the soil erosion and sediment control carried out by Toll Brothers – does this look like it works?
Somehow in a situation that is mired in subterfuge, deceit and construction chaos raises more questions about the DEP than it answers about Toll Brothers.
Still the dumping continues.
Mud flows into the Pleasant Brook.
And the soil was remediated correctly, according to Boswell Engineering and DEP, based on the figures they use.
However, a recent comment on a previous post pointed out:
“the soil at Apple Ridge is still toxic because it was only remediate to 20 mg/Kg of arsenic. That’s still 4000x times higher than the maximum contamination level for water (5 ug/Kg) (notice the change in unit from milli (m) to micro (u)!”
So who do you believe?
And trust?
