Who doesn’t love a good mystery? A good Whodunit? Will they or won’t they?
Heading into the weekend when Upper Saddle River administration is away, the mayor and council are enjoying a well deserved rest, borough hall is closed and no one is around to monitor activity the question is……will Toll Brothers purge the tanks from Orchard Ridge Preserve and once again turn the Pleasant Brook a muddy brown? Or make the water less aesthetic?
Will they or won’t they? Who knows, we have to wait and see.
And with rain coming soon the question is even more intriguing.
However, it is worth considering that following the 3″ rain event in July 2019 when a Stop Work Order was placed there were many agencies and individuals involved with lots of observations and recommendations. So many suggestions.
And then after a suitable period of time, when certain things were corrected and in place, the Stop Work Order was lifted.
But…..
The promised website never appeared. The telephone number for instant access to Toll Brothers to calm fears never happened.
Wasn’t Boswell Engineering supposed to have a representative on site or available during weekends to ensure only proper things happened? When it would have been very helpful on the weekend of January 3, 2020 to ensure a professional representative viewed what was actually occurring.
Reading through some of the following recommendations you have to wonder exactly how much of this has happened.
Yes, the stormwater runoff was controlled – until last weekend.
And the pumping appeared to stop – until last weekend.
Has Pleasant Brook been restored?
Have all the private ponds and spillways been remediated? Anyone????
Maybe they have, but how do residents know?
And despite the tables and charts of safe water analysis there is still the question of the poorly, if not insufficiently, remediated soil at Orchard Ridge Preserve.
Do you want you kids playing in streams with soil runoff from this site?
August 15, 2019 Update on Apple Ridge from Upper Saddle River
Representative from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) have again assured the Borough the discolored water which exited this site, at no point during the two-year tenure of this project, ever constituted a health concern for the residents of this community.
Elizabeth Dragon – Bureau of Coastal and Land Use Compliance & Enforcement – email August 13, 2019
Information on the bureau HERE
Department recommendations include:
• Deploying water quality sensor for turbidity to illustrate turbidity trends released from the project. Specifically, sensors measuring the flow out of the USR Basin outflow could illustrate the effectiveness of BMP’s prior to release from the site. We recommend a clear SOP (including, what actions and timeframes when the meter shows readings at levels of concern) reviewed (for comments) by the Department.
• Stabilization at concentrated runoff areas should be a primary focus. For example, stabilization at the stream crossing, storm catch basins, and stormwater management basins. Specific areas were noted.
o The stream crossing berms/stone filters should be raised, if the stream crossing is no longer needed then it should be eliminated and area stabilized.
o The stabilization of sediment control basins as noted in NJDA’s Construction deadline relief letter, attached.
Our observations and recommendations for erosion control were as follows:
- Discharge to Pleasant Brook at the southern end of the site was clear from several points including the stream by-pass, the primary sediment basin in USR and the small temporary basin.
- USR Sediment basin.
- The floating skimmer was upgraded to a larger size, and, was connected to theoutlet structure several feet lower which allows for a greater draw down of the volume. We requested that the original, smaller skimmer be reinstalled in addition to the new unit to aid in draw down. The basin water level was extremely low at the time of inspection offering a great amount of volume for future storm events. Only clear groundwater was draining from beneath the basin riprap apron.
- An underdrain pipe is still installed in the basin and should be used to dewater the basin in emergency conditions as it pulls clean water from below the basin floor.
- A pipe outlet on the south-east corner of the basin requires rip rap installation to prevent minor erosion occurring at that location. Additional minor erosion is occurring above the same pipe and should be stabilized.
- Toll stated the now exposed internal banks of the sediment basin are to be immediately stabilized with vegetation.
- Pleasant Brook Restoration.
- The remaining section at the south end of the brook will be undergoing restorationshortly, to be completed before the fall.
- Upper reaches of the restored brook are well vegetated and newer restorationareas are heavily stabilized with plant materials, mulch, blankets etc. Newlyplanted vegetation is being irrigated during hot weather.
- USR Project site.
- A temporary diversion channel has been constructed to prevent excess runoff from flowing toward Carlough Road. The channel will direct runoff to the USR sediment basin. We requested this be shown on a revised plan as a temporary diversion.
- Additional (possibly temporary) yard inlets are being installed along roadways as backup drains to protect Carlough Road in the event of another high-intensity rain/clogged drain. These inlets may be shown on the plan if the municipality decides they should be permanent structures.
- Street inlets have been modified with cuts to pavement allowing curb drainage to get into inlets since the inlet grates are still above grade. Asphalt ‘berms’ on thedownstream side of street inlets will be added to force curb drainage into inlets. We directed Toll to remove any internal inlet filters to avoid potential street flooding. Runoff will be unrestricted in its pathway to the basin.
- Undeveloped lots are being stabilized with seed and straw mulch and a mulch blanket along the curb to minimize movement of loose straw into the street in the event of a sever rain event. We suggested that a barrier, either silt fence or filter soxx be installed along the curb line to capture loose hay in the event of heavy rain.
Mr. Boswell stated that there is a list of all of the private ponds and spillways being compiled that have been negatively impacted by the flow of brown water, which will be Toll Brothers’responsibility to remediate.
who is supposed to verify all these conditions are being met? Wheres the checks and balances for each report made by these entities? Plus all reports should be transmitted to the town for record and be OPRA-able by residents for assurance.
This has been the problem throughout. There has been no transparency or communication, nothing was done until there was so much evidence. Then it was perfunctory, with no sanctions. No follow up. The water reports are available on the town website….gook luck understanding them…but who knows where everything else is. It is assumed the information is OPRAable but who knows. It is a mess, and really you are left question whose side is the mayor and council on. Thanks for your comment.
Wow! Welcome to USR Bruce and thank you for your input. We need more people like Bruce Peterson who are not afraid to speak up. This country belongs to us and not to corporate America or some third class politicians who only can survive in the public office. Or does it? Here is more about Bruce’s fights: https://www.nj.com/news/2009/08/union_county_freeholders_will.html
Sorry Bruce Paterson. I misspelled your name in my previous post. To increase the numbers of eyeballs of your fight in Union County I will post your YouTube video on my FB Wall. Let’s give you more than 15 views! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1f1kEe12Hk
Here is the mission motto from Boswell Engineering web pages. Kind of ironic but perhaps the founders at Boswell have no clue what they are doing to us. Perhaps.
Here is the quote”
“I believe what we do every single day makes somebody’s life better.”
That’s the care Stephen Boswell – president of a prolific engineering firm, patriarch of a prodigious family, and stalwart trustee of Stevens – puts into his job, one that helps people across the country drive, ride, work and play.
Boswell leads Boswell Engineering, a company his grandfather David started in 1924. Though he already had degrees in biology from NYU and William Paterson, he believed he needed an engineering degree before taking over the family business. After visiting Castle Point, he chose Stevens over other top schools.
“I picked Stevens because of the people I met. The dean and the head of the civil engineering department convinced me that this was a good place to go, that they were people from whom I could learn.”
Boswell Engineering serves municipal, county, state and federal clients along the mid-Atlantic and as far away as Minnesota, Arkansas and even Hawaii. Private sector clients include both industrial concerns and the largest developers in the country.
In the tristate area, Boswell has worked on major roads such as the New Jersey Turnpike, the Garden State Parkway, and Route 287 in New York from Rockland through Westchester County, across the Tappan Zee Bridge. “We do a tremendous amount of work on the Parkway. We’ve done many of the interchanges, we do a large number of the paving jobs, and it’s a great roadway.”
Words are cheap, it is actions that matter. Does Mr. Boswell live in town and drink the water? Or his kids?