To the Editor:

The New Jersey Water Supply Authority (NJWSA), which has responsibility for maintaining the supply of water from the D&R Canal, is planning to dredge the roughly eight-mile section of the canal between Kingston and East Millstone over three years beginning 12/15/2013 and ending 2/10/2017. The goal is to improve the water flow along the canal which is now impeded by silt accumulated over more than 50 years. While we support the goal of this project and recognize the NJWSA’s efforts to meet the needs of many constituencies, we are concerned about aspects that will impact Griggstown and Rocky Hill particularly.

The plan presented at a Public Meeting by the NJWSA on May 13 and available at www.njwsa.org/html/
canal_dredging.html, is to use hydraulic dredging, a giant underwater vacuum cleaner on a barge sucking a slurry of silt and canal water into a pipeline through which it will be pumped to a single “staging area” covering several acres on a property adjoining Canal Road approximately half a mile north of its intersection with Route 518 in Rocky Hill. There the silt will be separated and dried, then transported by truck to other sites for use as fill. The amount of silt to be removed is huge — estimated at 240,000 cubic yards (cu-yd), or 24,000 loads in 10 cu-yd dump trucks. The silt would cover the area of 10 football fields to a depth of over 12 feet. This staging area will essentially be an industrial facility and transfer station located in a semi-rural, residential area.

All the heavy trucks needed to remove the silt will have to pass along Canal Road. A waiver will be required to allow the trucks to exceed its present 4-ton limit which exists for a good reason: the road is narrow, uneven, and poorly constructed. The trucking will take place over 320 work days in three periods from August each year through the following January. This means that at least 75 standard dump-truck trips per day will be needed — a truck load leaving the site every 6½ minutes. In addition to the impact of the truck traffic on residents and commuters using Canal Road, there will be noise from the pumps needed to move the slurry, and odors from exposure of the silt to the air.

Under this plan, Griggstown and Rocky Hill will bear the brunt of this project for three years. We urge the NJWSA to relocate the staging area to a site with suitable road access not passing through residential areas. At the previous public meetings on the plan, other possible staging areas had been under consideration, including, at the southern end, areas in or adjacent to the Trap Rock quarry and asphalt plant on Route 603 (Kingston-Rocky Hill Road) where there are already roads capable of carrying the heavy truck traffic which connect to major transportation arteries.

We also ask residents of nearby communities to contact the NJWSA (by email at info@njwsa.org) to express their concerns about this, and any other, aspect of the plan.

Michael Bell

Coppermine Road

Spence Wilcox

Old Georgetown Road

Marc Knowlton

Canal Road