Wall Township Environmental Summit 2012

With the exception of the new makeup and legislators for New Jersey's 30th Legislative District, this year's Wall Township Environmental Summit was very similar in content to last year's.  What environmental issue is most concerning to the residents in District 30?  Wreck Pond.

A photo showing a nearby street after Wreck Pond flooded last year in the wake of Hurricane Irene.  Photo courtesy of Shelly Banjo for the Wall Street Journal

Senator Robert Singer, who's district previously spanned more of Ocean County, but is no stranger to representing coastal constituents, and Assemblyman David Rible were on hand to patiently listen to and address their constituents' concerns.  

The evening was kicked off by members of the Wreck Pond Homeowners Alliance, who went into detail about issues concerning the pond, stormwater management, flooding of their homes and associated health concerns, as well as the breakthroughs and shortcomings that they have had in dealing with the county, the state, and the federal government.  Asm. Rible stressed that both he and Asm. Sean Kean (also of District 30) were working closely with the DEP and Congressman Chris Smith's office on the issue.  "This time next year, we are not going to have this problem," offered Senator Singer to a round of applause, adding that he's not one to deem any task "impossible."

Fortunately, the NJDEP Action Plan that COA called for last year continues to be implemented. See here for more information. 

Clean Ocean Action was in attendance and echoed the concerns of the Wreck Pond Homeowners Alliance, but also brought a few additional issues up briefly.  With the looming cuts to federal programs that test water quality at swimming beaches, we asked the District 30 legislators to work with the DEP to ensure that funding for testing programs continues and that additional funding for storm event testing and source tracking is maintained. 

We also took the opportunity to provide information on the Tour for the Shore and the Clean Ocean Zone to Sen. Singer and Asm. Rible, keeping in mind that a number of towns in District 30 including, Point Pleasant, Howell, Manasquan, Lakewood, Bradley, Spring Lake, Belmar, Brielle, and Wall are already supportive.  We urged Senator Singer to co-sponsor a state-wide resolution in the NJ Senate supporting the COZ, while urging Asm. Rible to do the same in the Assembly.

Wall Environmental Summit on Thursday, Sept 13

We hope you join us at the 8th Annual Environmental Summit sponsored by Wall Township Environmental Advisory Committee that will be held on Thursday, Sept. 13 at 7:00 pm. It will be at the Wall Township Municipal Building 2700 Allaire Road, Wall, NJ.

This is a chance to meet and ask questions of District 30 state legislators. Senator Robert Singer and Assemblymen Sean Kean and David Rible will discuss and answer questions on environmental legislation, concerns, and issues. COA encourages you to voice your concerns about the environment - whether its to support more funding to repair old storm and wastewater infrastructure to call for enforcement of litter laws to calling for NJ's support for the Clean Ocean Zone.

District 30 includes parts of Monmouth and Ocean counties and the following towns: Avon-by-the-Sea, Belmar, Bradley Beach,Brielle, Farmingdale, Howell, Lake Como, Lakewood, Manasquan, Point Pleasant, Sea Girt, Spring Lake, Spring Lake Heights, Wall.

Here's the link to the flier if you want to share and post. COA hopes to see you there!