The Atlantic Ocean in OG receives dirty street water from A. Park and Ocean Grove. Paul Goldfinger photo. OG beach. 2019.

This post is by Doug McQueen of the Wesley Lake Commission, following up our article on the subject (link below).

BF post:     Blogfinger on Wesley Lake pollution due to North End development

 
Doug McQueen:

The standards for stormwater quantity and quality are listed in NJAC 7:8, Subchapter 5.
Specifically:
Stormwater Quantity 7:8-5.4
Stormwater Quality 7:8-5.5

The engineers have several options for meeting the standards set out in each section. Some of those options, even if they meet the minimum standards, could have flooding impacts that are detrimental to other development along the lake, particularly along the Asbury Park side.

We need to know more about which design options for stormwater mitigation are proposed in order to form a complete picture about whether the project will have deleterious hydrologic effects and whether the design could be done better to avoid those harmful effects.

Obviously, for cost reasons, developers typically only want to meet the minimum standards that they are held to, and would therefore push back against additional design considerations which would be better for stormwater runoff quality and quantity.

The more we know, the more we can ask for those additional measures. I’ve reached out to DEP to verify whether everything that’s being shown about the project is on the up-and-up.  I’m not terribly optimistic that we can convince them to make changes to do what’s best for the lake and the adjacent beaches, but we’ll try.

This may become one of those frustrating scenarios where there was only a millisecond in between, “It’s too early to tell,” and “It’s too late to change it.”

Regards,

Doug McQueen

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