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