Bill Text: NJ A3484 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Prohibits dumping dredge spoils on and around islands without municipal approval.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-02-05 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Environment, Natural Resources, and Solid Waste Committee [A3484 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A3484-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman CAROL A. MURPHY
District 7 (Burlington)
SYNOPSIS
Prohibits dumping dredge spoils on and around islands without municipal approval.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning dumping dredge spoils on islands and supplementing P.L.1987, C.156 (C.13:9B-1 et seq.).
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. The Legislature finds and declares:
a. Burlington Island, located on the Delaware River, has been under local control since the mid-19th century and activity thereon, since that time, has been subject to restrictions established by general law for the benefit of the City of Burlington;
b. Pursuant to P.L.1998, c.119, all land on Burlington Island is to remain exclusively in the public domain for recreational, conservational, educational or cultural use, with supporting facilities permitted;
c. The Department of Environmental Protection, in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers, intends to subvert the intent of the Legislature and dump potentially hazardous dredge spoils on Burlington Island;
d. Any attempt to use Burlington Island as a waste disposal site would be entirely inappropriate and antithetical to the Legislature's attempts to establish local control of the island for the purposes of benefitting the education of the children of the City of Burlington;
e. Therefore, it is necessary and appropriate to restrict State action on the island to maintain the protections established by the Legislature for the benefit of the City of Burlington nearly 200 years ago.
2. a. The department shall not approve any dumping of dredge spoils on any portion of a Delaware River island owned or controlled by the State or a political subdivision of the State, including riparian land, located on a Delaware River island controlled in whole or in part by a Board of Island Managers established by the Legislature, unless (1) the department petitions each municipality owning land on that island to authorize the dumping of dredge spoils on or around the island, and (2) each municipality petitioned by the department pursuant to this section adopts an ordinance authorizing the dumping of dredge spoils on or around the island. This section shall be applicable to all dumping of dredge spoils, including any proposed dumping on an existing dredge spoil bank.
b. For the purposes of this section:
"Department" means the Department of Environmental Protection.
"Dredge spoils" means unconsolidated, randomly mixed sediments composed of one or more of the following: rock, soil, or shell materials extracted and deposited during dredging and dumping activities.
"Dredge spoil bank" means a subaerial mound or ridge that permanently stands above the water composed of dredge spoils; randomly mixed sediments deposited during dredging and dumping.
3. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would prohibit the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) from approving any dumping of dredge spoils on any portion of a Delaware River island owned or controlled by the State or a political subdivision of the State, including riparian land, located on a Delaware River island controlled in whole or in part by a Board of Island Managers established by the Legislature. This prohibition would not apply if: (1) the DEP petitions each municipality owning land on that island to authorize the dumping of dredge spoils on or around the island; and (2) each municipality petitioned by the DEP adopts an ordinance authorizing the dumping of dredge spoils on or around the island. The bill would be applicable to all dumping of dredge spoils, including any proposed dumping on an existing dredge spoil bank.
