McCabe Won’t Repeal Highlands Septic Density Rules

During her testimony in front of the Senate Budget Committee, Acting Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner McCabe was unclear on whether or not the DEP will repeal the Highlands Septic Density Rules. She made promises to further evaluate the data and re-run the model to create new Rules as a “compromise” effort. In January, the New Jersey State Legislature rescinded a controversial rule that critics argued threatened drinking-water from the Highlands by allowing more development in the preservation area of the region. The state legislature contended the rule allowing greater density of septic tanks in parts of the 880,000-acre region is inconsistent with the legislative intent of the original law creating the New Jersey Highlands.

“We were astonished that the DEP Acting Commissioner is siding with developers over protecting the Highlands. She not only did not listen to the Legislature and set aside these bad rules, but she said she would come up with a ‘compromise.’ You cannot compromise when it comes to protecting the drinking water for six and a half million people. The Christie Highlands Septic Density Rules violated legislative intent and threaten the most environmentally-sensitive part of the region. We believe we should immediately repeal the rules created under the Christie Administration and reinstate the original 2004 Highlands Rule,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “This is no ‘failure to communicate’ as she said; this is an example of McCabe defending Christie’s rollbacks over listening to the Legislature. The Legislature has already ruled that the Highlands Rules are void. McCabe should uphold this by immediately replacing them with the previous version to better protect the drinking water for millions of people.”

In the Highlands’ Forest Preservation Area, which is the most environmentally sensitive area of the region and these rules would increase development by allowing more septic systems. The rules attack the Forest Preservation Area by changing the standards in the nitrate dilution model from .21 g/L to 2 g/L. That will increase density from developing from 1 house per 88 acres to 22 in forested area and 1 house per 25 acres to 8 in farmland areas.

“In her testimony, McCabe claimed that the addition of 1,300 new homes on 22 acre lots would be ‘miniscule’. This is a dangerous and untrue statement made to support allowing more development in the area. This would destroy 50,000 acres of the most sensitive land in the Highlands. It would also open up other areas for more development due to isolated lots with new roads up the mountains. This means potentially hundreds of more units and the loss of more acres. This would also create problems with Affordable Housing, adding even more development. The 1,300 homes is not miniscule; it’s the beginning of the destruction of the Preservation Area of the Highlands,” said Jeff Tittel.

The Highlands Act requires a nitrate model from ‘deep aquifer re-charge’ that has not been impacted by development. Instead, the DEP is using data from mostly developed areas of the Highlands around lakes that have shallow aquifers in areas outside the Preservation Area. The data that they used from the USGS came from after the Act went to affect in 2004, which clearly violates the Act itself. This is Trumpian alternative facts since it doesn’t properly measure change in water quality from before the Act was put in place.

“She said she believes in ‘science’ but she’s not using real science. She’s using what was made up by the previous Administration as a way to justify more development in the Highlands. The science she wants to use violates the Highlands Act. This is because they used private-well testing data illegally and took measurements from shallow wells in developed areas. Under the Highlands Act, they were supposed to use a nitrate model from ‘deep aquifer re-charge’ that has not been impacted by development. This change will allow developers to build McMansions in the sky and make it more cost effective to build roads and subdivisions on top of the environmentally sensitive mountains. They’re also using data illegally,” said Jeff Tittel. “These rules were written so Christie could take care of land speculators and developers at the expense of our water supply.”

The DEP’s Highlands Forest Preservation Area is a major source of drinking water for up to 6 million people that includes pristine trout streams, and reservoirs. The Highlands Rules written under Bob Martin and voided by the Legislature will not only threaten our water supply but are based on arbitrary science that target open space and will increase flooding.

“The changes in DEP’s Highlands Septic Density rule will open the entire Forest Preservation Area in the Highlands to development. These standards prevent the degradation of water quality in one of the most environmentally sensitive areas in the entire state. The Highlands protect 64% of our state’s drinking water. By allowing the extension of sewers, it will impact open space and nearby reservoirs and streams. This rule will not only rob our clean water supply, lowering our aquifers, but will pollute our streams, rivers, and drinking water,” said Jeff Tittel. “This resolution was an important vote since for the first time, the Legislature has voted to overturned one of Christie’s terrible environmental rules. By not immediately pulling down the rules, McCabe is acting in defiance of the wishes of the Legislature.”

The Highlands Septic rules were put in place to protect our drinking water and public health, but this proposal is a dirty deal for dirty water. This is part of the Administration’s weakening of the Flood Hazard Rules, Water Quality Management Planning Rules as well as the failure to update the Water Supply Master Plan and preventing the Drinking Water Quality Institute from meeting.

“It’s disappointing and even shameful that McCabe is not complying with the Legislature by immediately pulling these rules down. She’s following the steps of the Christie Administration who worked to dismantle the Highlands Act piece by piece. This is concerning in itself but also when considering the other rules that need to be replaced because they were weakened by the previous Administration. What will McCabe do about the Water Quality Management Planning Rules, the Wetlands Rules, or the Flood Hazard Rules? Will she fail to do other important things to protect our water supply such as updating the Water Supply Master Plan or fixing the Highlands Council?” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We will continue to work with the Legislature to pull down illegal rules such as the Highlands Septic Density Rules. The Governor made a commitment to protect the Highlands and we’re going to hold him to that commitment. New Jersey’s water supply should not be compromised; it must be protected!”