Environmental Commission Minutes

June 2, 2010

 

Attendance: Tom Carr, Corey Nachshen , Todd Terhune, Bill Albergo, Khizar Sheikh, Jackie Bay, John Horan, Cathy Harvey, Margaret Gossett and Charles Gormally

 

Not present:  Khizar Sheikh and Jackie Bay

 

Guest: Sandy Batty

 

ERI Discussion: Determined that the EC does not need Council approval for ERI content. Table of contents will be added to the site followed by chapters.  A public meeting must occur before the ERI is posted on the Internet.  Public input is good for fact checking and public support to maintain the site for the future.  

Lakes Mapping:   Lakebed depth mapping of Mountain Lake, Birchwood, Crystal and Wildwood Lake has been completed. Mapping of the other lakes should be completed soon assuming budget money is available.

Goose Management: USDA continues addling program on all of the lakes each spring.  One EC member noted at least 25 Canada Geese located on nearby pond. Barry Lewis reported at least 11 Canada Geese on Mountain Lake at the Lake Committee meeting last night. Barry will make a decision to cull the flock once the molting season begins based on the number of geese residing in town.      

Sustainable New Jersey group is looking for a new volunteer to attend EC meetings.

Aquifer Quality Monitoring of Contaminated Industrial Sites: Research has begun to acquire monitoring data from NJDEP for industrial sites that are contaminated. 

 Refurbished Well No. 3 has not been issued a permit by NJDEP due to regulatory deficiencies in reporting by Mountain Lakes.

Wellhead Protection Ordinance – not discussed at this meeting.

Borough Council Liaison - The Commission discussed possible project proposal to remove Japanese Barberry from the Cove and replacement of barberry with stone wall.  EC members voiced concern for the potential negative long term impact of a stone wall without a riparian buffer on the water body due to the shallow nature of the Cove and pollution run-off from Morris Avenue.  Councilman Gormally indicated Council would not approve this type of project without stakeholder input.

 Electronic Mapping: Steve Rice from the Morris County Office of Planning made an excellent presentation of electronic mapping to show the power of layering of select features.  Map reports could be downloaded into PDF files for select projects. For example, the prime aquifer recharge area can be layered with known contaminated sites. Another possible benefit of geo- referencing would be site plan review for new projects in town, possibly adding hyper-links to zoning maps. The department of public works could benefit from this mapping.   The mapping program is still being developed.

Submitted by: Margaret Gossett